Rape case: Ronaldo, Pogba, De Gea unfollow Greenwood on Instagram

Manchester United’s biggest stars are apparently unfollowing team-mate Mason Greenwood on social media after his arrest over allegations of rape and assault, with nine members of the first team squad keeping their distance today.

United’s most high-profile players, including David de Gea, Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Pogba have shunned Greenwood on Instagram, despite following other squad members.

Marcus Rashford, Edinson Cavani, Fred and Jesse Lingard are also among those not following the rising star, who is at the centre of shocking allegations that he attacked an 18-year-old student.

But club captain Harry Maguire and Bruno Fernandes are in a group of 18 squad members who have so far maintained their support for the young forward on the social media platform, Sportsmail can reveal.

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Greenwood, 20, was questioned into the night by police and remained in custody early today after horrifying images and audio circulated on social media

The images appeared to show the woman bloodied and bruised and the audio included a voice recording of a conversation between a man and a woman, dated October last year, which purportedly chronicled the woman being attacked.

Greenwood, who earns £75,000-a-week, has been suspended by Manchester United until further notice.

Within hours of the messages emerging and spreading across social media, his club put out a statement saying it was aware of them and they were making inquiries ‘to establish the full circumstances’.

United then went further and said the player would ‘not return to training or play matches until further notice’.

Manchester United’s squad has shown signs of disunity in a difficult season and they appear to be evident again in the team’s reaction to news of Greenwood’s arrest.

Paul Pogba is following Kurt Zouma, Romelu Lukaku, Alexandre Lacazette, Mario Balotelli and Jadon Sancho among the 157 people he is following, but the United youngster is not among them this morning.

Similarly, Marcus Rashford boasts Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw and on-loan Anthony Martial in his list of the 171 he is following, but not Greenwood.

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However, the majority of United’s squad are still following the England international 24 hours after his arrest.

As well as the skipper and Fernandes, team members, including, Victor Lindelof, Eric Bailly, Raphael Varanne, Luke Shaw, Bruno Fernandes, Donny Van de Beek, Scott McTominay and Jadon Sancho are following the suspended starlet’s Insta account.

Events have moved rapidly since the social media posts prompted police action on Sunday.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester police said they had launched an investigation after being made ‘aware of online social media images and videos posted by a woman reporting incidents of physical violence’.

He added: ‘Following inquiries we can confirm a man in his 20s has since been arrested on suspicion of rape and assault. He remains in custody for questioning. Inquiries are ongoing.’

Forensic officers also arrived at Greenwood’s £2million mansion in the upmarket village of Bowdon, Cheshire, yesterday evening.