Manchester City chose to abandon Tuesday's Under-21 game with Croatian side HNK Rijeka following an apparent racist comment directed at one of their youngsters.

Citizens staff withdrew their players from the pitch before half time and accused their hosts of racially abusing their Malian-born French midfielder Seko Fofana, 19.

A statement on their Twitter account read: "Manchester City's EDS U21 game with HNK Rijeka has today been cancelled due to an alleged incident of racial abuse toward the Club's young midfielder, Seko Fofana by a member of the opposing team.

"Following an alleged incident in the latter stages of the first half of the game, being played in Novigrad, Croatia, a decision was taken by the management staff to withdraw the City team from the field of play and cancel the game.

"Club representatives in Croatia and in Manchester are liaising with officials, the match organisers and the Croatian Football Association to pursue this matter further."

Former Lorient trainee Fofana was shown a straight red card for an off-the-ball incident on 44 minutes.