Premiership star Wilfried Zaha says it is “degrading” to have to take a knee before every game and is fed up of being used to “tick boxes” without change happening.

The Crystal Palace star, said he is tired of having to kneel in order to show black people matter as much as anyone else and hit out at firms who are keen to have him speak on the issue without enacting any meaningful change.

Zaha, who grew up in Thornton Heath has been the target of online racial abuse a number of times – including from a 12-year-old boy last year. 

The 28-year-old speaking on The Judy podcast, said: “The whole kneeling down – why must I kneel down for you to show that we matter? Why must I even wear Black Lives Matter on the back of my top to show you that we matter? This is all degrading stuff.

“When people constantly want to get me to do Black Lives Matter talks and racial talks and I’m like, I’m not doing it just so you can put ‘Zaha spoke for us’. Like a tick box, basically.

“I’m not doing any more, because unless things change, I’m not coming to chat to you just for the sake of it, like all the interviews I’ve done.

“All these platforms – you see what’s happening, you see people making fake accounts to abuse black people constantly, but you don’t change it.”