An Italian television station has banned one of its pundits after he made a racist comment about Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku.

Speaking on channel TopCalcio24, veteran pundit  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, was a part of the Inter side that defeated Udinese 1-0 over the weekend. Lukaku was recently subjected to monkey chants by Cagliari fans when he scored a penalty for his side in a 2-1 victory.