Manchester United and England striker Wayne Rooney has claimed a heated exchange with a fan on social networking site Twitter in which he said "I'll put u asleep within 10 seconds" was light-hearted banter.
Rooney replied to a Twitter user called sam_oldham_LFC, believed to be a Liverpool fan, on Wednesday night after receiving several abusive messages.
The 25-year-old, who has over 580,000 followers on Twitter, said "you know where I train every day kid come and do it good luck" after his abuser had threatened to attack him.
Rooney then tweeted: "I'll put u asleep within 10 seconds u little girl. Don't say stuff and not follow up on it. I'll be waiting."
He later tried to diffuse the situation, posting: "Ha ha bit of banter and people go nuts chill all people."
The sam_oldham_LFC account has since been deleted, while Rooney's spokesman later released a statement to the media claiming the striker's messages were no more than a joke.
He was quoted by the UK Press Association as saying: "As is made clear in the tweets, this whole exchange is banter. There is no suggestion, nor is there any intention of a suggestion, of a real fight."
On Thursday Rooney was back to tweeting about his usual topics of interest — soccer and American Idol.
A host of sports stars are on Twitter and claim it is a positive way to engage with their fans but several have fallen foul of the authorities thanks to the social networking phenomenon.
Ex-Liverpool player Ryan Babel was fined $16,000 by the English Football Association after he posted a picture of referee Howard Webb in a Manchester United shirt following a controversial game between the two clubs.
West Ham striker Carlton Cole was recently charged with improper conduct for remarks he made on Twitter during England's 1-1 draw with Ghana at Wembley in March.
NBA star LeBron James also caused a stir when he retweeted abusive messages he received — one of them racially charged.
He followed it by posting a message himself that said: "U see world how people feel! Just use it as extra motivation in whatever u do best! No one can stop your dreams from becoming reality!"
CNN
