Racism: Arokodare receives clearance to face Aston Villa

2026-02-27 - 18:16

By Adegboyega Adeleye Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Tolu Arokodare has received a psychological clearance from the club to feature in Friday’s English Premier League clash against Aston Villa, after recovering from the trauma of last weekend’s racist abuse. The 25-year-old suffered online racist attacks after missing a penalty in the first half of Wolves’ 1-0 away defeat to Crystal Palace last weekend. According to Wolves’ head coach, Rob Edwards, the entire coaching staff and his teammates offered the striker individual words of sympathy and collectively supported him as a team during the week. “He was upset and angered by it, understandably so,” Edwards told the club’s official website. “We’ve supported him, and I’ve had a few individual chats with him; we’ve spoken about it as a group as well, to make sure that we get around him and support him. Then he’s had overwhelming support from a lot of Wolves fans and other people reaching out, which is really good.” Edwards also added that Arokodare trained fully with the team this week and, despite being heavily psychologically affected by the racist abuse, he is now ready to play in Wolves’ home game against Aston Villa on Friday. The head coach confirmed that football authorities had been monitoring the situation closely following increasing concerns about online discrimination across the league. The Nigerian International joined Wolves from Belgian Pro League outfit, KRC Genk, last summer, scoring twice in 18 appearances.