Romelu Lukaku has broken his silence less than 24 hours after being racially abused by Cagliari fans. 

Monkey chants could be heard from fans behind the goal after the Inter Milan striker scored a penalty to put his side 2-1 up on Sunday night. 

Rather than celebrating, Lukaku stood and stared at those who had abused him before being joined by his teammates.

Cagliari supporters, who have been caught racially abusing at least four other players since 2010, were widely condemned once again following the match. 

A number of influential football figures have demanded action and on Monday afternoon, Lukaku himself responded to the incident.

"Many players in the last month have suffered from racial abuse. I did yesterday too," his statement, which was posted on Instagram, began.

"Football is a game to be enjoyed by everyone and we shouldn't accept any form of discrimination that will put our game in shame.

"I hope the football federations all over the world react strongly on all cases of discrimination!!!

"Social media platforms (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook...) need to work better as well with football clubs because every day you see at least a racist comment under a post of a person of colour.

We've been saying it for years and still no action...Ladies and gentlemen it's 2019.

"Instead of going forward we're going backwards and I think as players we need to unify and make a statement on this matter to keep this game clean and enjoyable for everyone." 

Powerful stuff. It's time for players, fans and football's governing bodies to unite and kick all forms of discrimination out of the game, once and for all. 

These issues simply can't go unpunished any longer.