During a recent Turkish soccer match, a footballer walked off the pitch in tears after being on the receiving end of verbal abuse from a small set of supporters of his own team.

The incident happened during last week’s match between Trabzonspor and Rizespor in the Turkish Super League. The footballer, Volkan Sen, walked off the pitch in tears after verbal abuse from 1-2 fans of his own club got the better of him.

The incident happened shortly before half-time, and his teammates were unable to console Sen. The footballer refused to come on in the second half and was replaced by Florent Malouda.

Trabzonspor coach Mustafa Akcay said:

“This is a human job. We have a person with an emotional implosion here. You could talk about discipline, but for me, respect for a human comes before discipline.”

The chairman of Trabzonspor added:

“It is impossible to condone fans swearing at a player, but I cannot accept a professional footballer leaving the pitch. You are not playing marbles in the street. There is no place for such behavior in our team.”

Here’s the video of the unfortunate incident: