'Name a better footballer than Phil Jones' - Twitter apologises for mocking Man United player

Manchester United defender Phil Jones collides with Real Madrid defender Daniel Carvajal [COURTESY]

Phil Jones has received a formal apology from Twitter after he was trolled by them on their official account.

A tweet posted on Twitter's account on Tuesday night read 'Name a better footballer than Phil Jones' and quickly received hundreds of retweets and likes.

United complained to Twitter about the mocking tweet, with Jones and the club receiving an apology, while the tweet was subsequently deleted.

Twitter's own rules and policies on content posting include a line which states: “You may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so.”

A Twitter spokesperson said: "Our aim was to showcase our new product feature, conversation controls, which allows you to select who can reply to a Tweet.

Everton's Romelu Lukaku and Manchester United's Phil Jones [Action Images via Reuters]

"It was not our intention to cause upset and once we realised our mistake, we immediately deleted the Tweet."

Jones, 28, who won 27 England caps, has seen his United career blighted by injury since he joined from Blackburn for £16million in 2011 and has made 224 appearances in nine seasons.

The defender, who has played just two Premier League games this season, is currently sidelined with a knee injury which ruled him out of travelling to Cologne with United's Europa League squad.

The 28-year-old has endured a tough season and made the last of eight appearances in January's FA Cup fourth-round win at Tranmere.

Jones has been absent since football resumed after the coronavirus suspension through injury but was named in United's 30-man squad for the Europa League final eight tournament in Germany.

However, the defender will not feature in the European competition due to a knee issue that has seen him remain in Manchester.

"Phil has been following an individualised training programme during the post-lockdown period to optimise recovery from a knee problem," United boss Solskjaer told the club website.

"It was a good opportunity as we had sufficient cover in defensive positions for the remaining Premier League games and he will continue to work with a fitness coach at the Aon Training Complex, while the squad are in Germany."