Roy Hodgson has given his backing to Wilfried Zaha and condemned those who targeted racists abuse and threats towards the striker.

Hodgson was speaking after Crystal Palace's 1-0 Carabao Cup defeat at Middlesbrough which Zaha sat out.

Zaha revealed on social media that after he was awarded a late penalty in Palace's 2-2 draw with Arsenal on Sunday he and his family had received racial abuse and threats.

Hodgson said: "It's fairly obvious that at my stage of life, I don't have any sympathy for people who use these platforms to abuse other people. I can't say anything other than that.

"As far as Wilf is concerned, the club will do everything they can to support him in this way. I don't think there are many people out there expect perhaps the odd Twitter troll who knows no better who believes that racially abusing people or threatening people is the right way to go.

"Of course all our sympathy is with our player and the club will do everything we can to show him that support and help him get through the situation."

Palace were knocked out by the 2004 winners courtesy of a Lewis Wing piledriver in first-half stoppage time - the midfielder's first senior goal for the club.

Hodgson's side finished strongly, but apart from Andros Townsend's late curling effort which was beaten away by keeper Dimi Konstantopoulos, created little of note.

Hodgson, whose players were left appealing in vain for handball during the build-up to the goal, said: "The fact is it was a tight game - we always knew it was going to be a tight game.

"We didn't think it was going to be a game with a lot of goals in it and unfortunately we conceded one in the first half, albeit that most people who were close to the incident would agree that that was rather unfortunate.

"There referee was unsighted and couldn't give the decision which he otherwise would have given."