Jesse Lingard has apologised for a tweet posted on his personal account just after the minute’s silence to commemorate the victims of the Munich Air Disaster.
The United midfielder was at Old Trafford for the memorial service and has blamed the tweet on a member of his media team.
— Jesse Lingard (@JesseLingard) February 6, 2018
The minute’s silence was held at 3:04pm – the exact time the plane carrying the ‘Busby Babes’ crashed – and the tweet was sent from Lingard’s account just three minutes later.
He had been asked when he and team-mate Marcus Rashford would be playing the computer game FIFA 18. The reply from Lingard’s account was: “Your (sic) not ready for me.”
Lingard has since deleted the tweet, and posted: “A member of my media team inadvertently replied to a tweet this afternoon on my Twitter profile during the Munich memorial service at Old Trafford.
“I was unaware as I was attending the service at the time, and don’t condone the post or the timing in any way.
“The post has now been deleted, and I’d like to apologise for any upset caused, this is totally unacceptable and does not reflect my personality or view on this emotional day.”
Thousands of fans, as well as players and managers past and present, were at the service at Old Trafford on Tuesday.
The service was to remember the 23 people who were killed in the tragedy, eight of whom were part of United’s famous ‘Busby Babes’ side.
They were travelling back from a European Cup tie in Belgrade and had stopped to refuel in Munich.
Two take-off attempts were aborted due to heavy snow, before a third resulted in disaster.
