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LONDON. — An Italian television station says it will not use one of its football pundits again after he made a racist comment about Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku.

Speaking on TopCalcio24, Luciano Passirani said: “If you go one-on-one with him he will murder you.

“The only way to come up against him is maybe give him 10 bananas to eat . . .”

Programme director Fabio Ravezzani said, despite Passirani’s “immediate apologies” that “he could no longer participate in our broadcasts”.

Lukaku, who moved from Manchester United to Inter in the summer, helped his side to a 1-0 win against Udinese on Saturday.

“Mr Passirani is 80 years old and to compliment Lukaku he used a metaphor that turned out to be racist,” added Ravezzani.

“I think it was a terrible lack of momentary lucidity.

“I cannot tolerate any kind of errors, even if momentary.”

Lukaku was recently subjected to monkey chants by Cagliari fans when he scored a penalty for his side in a 2-1 victory.

Serie A’s disciplinary judge has not decided yet whether or not Cagliari should be punished.

Afterwards, the Belgium international said the abuse showed the game was “going backwards”.

Meanwhile, Gazzetta dello Sport reports that Hellas Verona supporters aimed offensive chants at AC Milan midfielder Franck Kessie during the first half of a 1-0 loss to Milan on Sunday night.

The Italian sports newspaper adds that the chants continued during half-time.

Kessie, an Cote d’lvoire international, was also subjected to racist chants by Inter Milan and Lazio fans last season. — BBC Sport.