Warrington Wolves winger Josh Charnley has opened up on meeting with a fan who had sent him death threats over social media. Charnley received the online abuse following Warrington’s 34-18 defeat to Hull KR last month.
The messages were quickly handed over to the club, and the fan was issued a lengthy ban, whilst an unnamed female supporter also received a banning order. Despite the abuse, Charnley and his club offered the banned male the opportunity to meet the winger to discuss the matter.
Following the offer the Wire supporter accepted, and the pair met face-to-face as part of the Rugby Football League's 'Tackle It' initiative.
Discussing the meet up on BBC Breakfast, Charnley revealed the abuser was ‘shaking’ and ‘felt embarrassed’. He said: “You could see he was shaking, he felt embarrassed about it.
"He wouldn't have said that to me in that room, no chance. If you can meet them then you can get your point across and hopefully they'll take that on the chin.
"I don't know why I was targeted. It wasn't nice to see and I don't want to be getting comments like that and my family thinking I'm in danger. It shocked me at first. We don't go out there every week to get beat."
Charnley's wife, Zoe also addressed the abuse, and believes fans sometimes forget that players are ‘human’ after revealing her worry about the messages. She commented: “Sometimes I think fans forget that they are human and they've got lives as well. They don't see what we see at home.
“I feel like it's always been there but it's a lot easier for people to put it out there because of social media. It makes you worried because you don't know these people, we've never met this person, we don't know if he's going to do anything about these threats. It's not nice for Josh's parents."
