Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has been forced to close down his Twitter account after he received a number of death threats.

The Belgian international, who is on loan with Atletico from Chelsea, was blamed by several of his club's supporters for their 2-0 defeat to rivals Real Madrid at the weekend, according to Marca.

Since Courtois came off the social networking site, his teammates Falcao and Mario went public on Twitter with their support for the 20-year-old.

However, a source close to the player has hinted that he could soon return to Twitter.