An England Women's football star was sent rape and death threats on Instagram mid-match, including one message saying 'I wish you cancer and leukemia'.

Karen Carney, 31, scored the winning goal in Chelsea FC's 1-0 victory against Fiorentina in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday night.

Carney, 31, received several sickening messages in the second half, which she shared publicly after the game.

The first of the messages, sent by user ‘dzo09’ at 9.22pm on Wednesday, read: ‘How many chances you need to score in second half stupid b******.’ 

It was followed by ‘I wish you cancer and leukemia’ and another disgusting, sexual remark.

The first post appears to relate to the Women’s Champions League last-16 tie between Chelsea and Fiorentina on Wednesday.

Carney scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot in the eighth minute but Chelsea were unable to add to their lead ahead of the second leg in Italy in two weeks’ time.

Carney, capped 133 times for England, shared the messages and wrote: ‘Wow some people...’

Instagram user ‘dzo09’ is a private account but features the name Nikola Nikolic.

An Instagram spokesperson told BBC Sport: ‘We do not tolerate threatening or abusive behaviour and the account that sent these messages has been removed from Instagram.’

Dailymail.