Twitter has apologised to Manchester United’s Phil Jones after a post from its @TwitterUK account appeared to mock the defender.

On Wednesday night the social media platform said it had removed the tweet.

It came after complaints were made about the post which read: “Name a better defender than Phil Jones.”

“It was not our intention to cause upset,” a Twitter spokesman said. “Once we realised our mistake, we immediately deleted the tweet.”

Twitter said it was trying to showcase a new feature that allows users to limit who can comment on posts.

Jones, 28, has not played for United since the season was restarted in June and has not travelled with the squad for the Europa League mini-tournament in Germany.

United play Sevilla in the semi-finals on Sunday.