AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has defended himself against accusations he aimed racist comments at Inter Milan's Romelu Lukaku during their Coppa Italia quarter-final, saying there is no place for racism in "Zlatan's world".
Ibrahimovic and Lukaku, who played together at Manchester United, exchanged words at the end of the first half before they had to be restrained as the players left the pitch for the interval.
The BBC reported that a pitchside microphone had picked up Ibrahimovic saying "go do your voodoo" to Lukaku, an apparent reference to 2018 comments from Everton owner Farhad Moshiri that the Belgian turned down an offer to stay in Merseyside on the advice of a "voodoo message."
However, Ibrahimovic wrote on Twitter: "In ZLATAN's world there is no place for RACISM.
We are all the same race - we are all equal !! We are all PLAYERS some better then others.
Italian television said Milan representatives had denied any allegations of racism in Ibrahimovic's remarks to Lukaku.
Sky Sports reported that the Italian Football Federation is likely to make a decision on the matter on Friday.
Ibrahimovic was shown another yellow card after halftime for a hard tackle on Aleksandar Kolarov and was sent off, leaving his team with 10 players as they went on to lose Tuesday evening's match 2-1.
Australian Associated Press
