Marcus Rashford has said he “does not condone” antisemitism after being pictured with the rapper Wiley, with Jesse Lingard also reinforcing his opposition to racism.

Rashford, 24, was photographed with the grime artist, 43, and fellow England footballer Jesse Lingard, 29.

The image is thought to have been taken on Sunday in Dubai where Wiley has been performing and a number of England footballers are currently on holiday.

Wiley was dropped by his management in 2020 after making a number of offensive, antisemitic comments on social media.

This picture has been brought to my attention which I understand now, given context, could easily be misconstrued. I would like to reinforce that I do not and will not condone discriminative language or behaviour of any kind aimed at the Jewish community or any other community.

The rapper, whose real name is Richard Kylea Cowie, has been banned from Twitter twice for his remarks.

Rashford, however, sought to reinforce his stance on all forms of racism on Twitter on Tuesday.

He posted: “This picture has been brought to my attention which I understand now, given context, could easily be misconstrued.

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“I would like to reinforce that I do not and will not condone discriminative language or behaviour of any kind aimed at the Jewish community or any other community.

“I truly believe that tackling antisemitism in and outside of the game requires a greater level of attention and should very much form part of the game’s anti-racism stance.”

Lingard has also made a statement on the matter.

He wrote on Twitter: “I’ve been made aware of a photo circulating currently, that can easily be misconstrued. I want to make it clear that I do not condone any form of racism whatsoever!”

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His teammate Rashford was praised for speaking out against racism after he was the target of abuse following his missed penalty at the Euro 2020 final.

He was awarded an MBE last year for his campaign to tackle child food poverty.

Wiley, when speaking to Sky News about his initial antisemitic social media posts, refused to distance himself from them, claiming they were aimed at his Jewish manager.

“My comments should not have been directed to all Jews or Jewish people. I want to apologise for generalising, and I want to apologise for comments that were looked at antisemitic,” he said.

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