BRESCIA striker Mario Balotelli threatened to leave the field after suffering racist abuse in his side’s Serie A match at Hellas Verona on Sunday.

Television pictures showed the former Manchester City and Liverpool forward pick up the ball and kick it into the stands before making to leave the pitch in the 54th minute of the match.

He was convinced to stay by teammates, Verona players and officials before referee Maurizio Mariani initiated the anti-racism protocol.

The game was temporarily suspended while a message was read out by the stadium announcer, warning that the match would be abandoned if further racist abuse was to occur.

It was the second time such a protocol was followed in Serie A at the weekend, after the match between Roma and Napoli was temporarily halted when territorial chants were directed at the Napoli supporters.

Hellas Verona has been forced to deny racist abuse by its fans in the past, including this season after a game against AC Milan.

When Milan’s midfielder Franck Kessie was the target of racist abuse in Verona in September, Hellas tweeted to accuse onlookers of using “stereotypes” to put down their fans as racists, later saying onlookers were “whistling” and that claims of monkey chants were “baseless news.”

After Sunday’s game Verona coach Ivan Juric repeated such claims, saying: “There were a lot of whistles every time he had the ball but not racism. I didn’t hear a single [chant].”

After staying on the pitch, Balotelli scored a late long-range effort to finish 2-1 down.