England star Ashley Young has revealed that he first suffered racial abuse on a football pitch when he was just 11 years old.

The Manchester United winger, who has scored six goals in his last 10 appearances for his country, is about to embark on the most exciting chapter of his international career so far as a key man in England's attack at a major tournament.

Shock: Ashley Young was racially abused by 11-year-old

But as he prepared for England's Euro 2012 opener against France in Donetsk - and as the tournament in Poland and Ukraine continued to wrestle with the spectre of racist abuse - he talked candidly about his own experiences of racism and the battle by football's rulers to rid the game of its unacceptable stain.

For 26-year-old Young it is familiar territory. He was one of a trio of England players racially abused by spectators when they played in Bulgaria in a Euro 2012 qualifier in Sofia last September, an offence for which the Bulgarian FA were fined £34,000 by UEFA.

But for Young the story goes back even further and is not confined to the terraces of eastern Europe, where racist abuse by both fans and members of extremist far right groups has become all too common.

Recounting his first experience of racism in the game, Young, born in Stevenage and brought up in the relatively benign world of junior football in Hertfordshire, yesterday recalled the sheer shock of being racially abused by another child as the worst incident he has suffered.

'It happened when I was a youngster and playing in a Sunday game,' he said. 'I was 11 years old and I was racially abused on the pitch by another player of the same age. I'm not sure what happened to him but I'm sure the matter was taken up by the managers.

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