Kelvin MacKenzie has been suspended with immediate effect following comments made in a column about Everton's Ross Barkley on Friday.
MacKenzie compared Everton's Ross Barkley, whose grandfather was born in Nigeria, to a gorilla in the article, also describing the 23-year-old as 'thick' and 'one of our dimmest footballers'.
As well as this, he also suggested that men from Liverpool who earned similar 'pay packets' to that of Barkley were drug dealers.
Naturally, the column has prompted a furious response, eventually leading to
The Sun confirming MacKenzie's suspension via a statement.
Stan Collymore, who left talkSPORT radio shortly after they were bought by The Sun's parent company, News Corporation, was one of many to be outraged by the content of the article.
Of the comparison between Barkley and a gorilla, Collymore tweeted that it was 'implied racism at its finest', before asking Ian Wright, a man who has written for The Sun, for his thoughts on the matter.
https://twitter.com/StanCollymore/status/852845000215973888
At this stage, Wright did not respond to Collymore - who he played alongside for England during the 1990s.
Collymore later tweeted the following...
https://twitter.com/StanCollymore/status/852962674279428097
Before quoting this Ian Wright tweet condemning MacKenzie with nothing but a laughing face emoji.
https://twitter.com/IanWright0/status/852958940149231616
https://twitter.com/StanCollymore/status/852964159868342272
Wright then replied to Collymore, taking a swipe at his claims that he produced 'award-winning radio' while at talkSPORT before claiming that his tweets on MacKenzie were merely to make him sound relevant.
https://twitter.com/IanWright0/status/852977649932804096
Collymore replied with this...
https://twitter.com/StanCollymore/status/852979046623346689
Drawing criticism from some of those that saw it...
Prompting Wright to respond with this, a reference to an incident which Collymore attacked then girlfriend Ulrika Jonsson.
https://twitter.com/IanWright0/status/852983465263988736
Probably not the last we'll hear of this one...
