Michail Antonio Gives Powerful Response When Asked To Comment On Kurt Zouma's Cat Kicking Video

West Ham forward Michail Antonio has issued a powerful response after being asked to comment on the ongoing situation surrounding Kurt Zouma. 

A petition calling for Zouma to be prosecuted has now received more than 270,000 signatures and Essex Police have confirmed they are liaising with the RSPCA as part of “urgent inquiries” into the incident.

When asked to give his thoughts on the matter, Antonio said: “I’ve got a question for you. Do you think what he’s done is worse than racism?”

“I’m not condoning a thing that he’s done. I don’t agree with what he’s done, at all.

“But there’s people that have been convicted and caught for racism and have played football afterwards.

“They got punished, an eight-game punishment or something like that… but people are now calling for people to be sacked and to lose their livelihood.

“I’ve just got to ask this question to everyone out there. Is what he’s done worse than what people have done that have been convicted for racism?”

Kirkland’s comments were immediately met with a backlash from supporters and the former Liverpool and Wigan goalkeeper was forced to take to social media to clarify his stance.

"Hi, just a quick video - I know a lot of people seem to be offended and listen I totally understand with what I said this morning about the Kurt Zouma situation,” said Kirkland.

"Obviously I mentioned racism and about if players have been banned before, I know I said that it's possibly worse and that but what I meant was animals can't defend themselves - they've not got a voice.

"Obviously humans have but listen, racism goes without saying it's an absolute disgrace and anyone who does that should be locked up, people know how I feel about that I don't have to say that.

"But yeah, it was just in