Abuse forces Mikel off Twitter

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21 September 2012-PA Sport

Twitter abuse ... John Obi Mikel leaves the micro-blogging application (Getty)

Chelsea has condemned racist abuse of John Obi Mikel on Twitter, after the midfielder deleted his account.

Mikel removed his profile from the social networking site less than 24 hours after his mistake helped cost the Blues victory in the opening match of its UEFA Champions League defence against Juventus.

The 25-year-old Nigerian has deleted the 'Mikel12Official' account he set up this northern summer and Chelsea admitted that it had informed the police about the tweets.

A statement read: "We've been made aware of racist tweets targeted at Mikel which are totally unacceptable, disgusting and abhorrent.

"We've informed the police and support taking the strongest possible action."

Mikel refused to hide from his mistake after the 2-2 Group E draw against Juve.

The 25-year-old gave the ball away 10 minutes from time before he and his team-mates failed to prevent Claudio Marchisio playing Fabio Quagliarella into space for the equaliser.

Mikel said afterwards: "If I want to make up an excuse, I can. But, for me, I gave the ball away. I put my hands up, we move on.

"I'm sorry about the mistake, but there are no excuses."