Hull City’s Angus MacDonald left overwhelmed by support from “football family” after being diagnosed with bowel cancer

The 26-year-old had only recently returned to full training having been sidelined for almost a year due to deep vein thrombosis.

MacDonald revealed he will undergo an operation in a fortnight, before which time he intends to go travelling.

He said in two messages on his Twitter account (@Angus_Mac15): “Thank you Football family – I’m absolutely overwhelmed by the support that has come my way this past week.

“Literally thousands of messages which I’m taking time reading through today (Thursday) and it really has given me a huge boost.

“I’ve got a couple of weeks until my first op, so I’m going to enjoy some time travelling and soak up as much positivity as I possibly can.”

Tigers boss Grant McCann said in his press conference to preview Saturday’s match against Wigan: “We’re all gutted for Angus. He’s shown a real strength of character to deal with it and we send our best wishes to him.

“Angus will take a break from football and when he comes back from some time abroad the operation starts. We’ll be supporting him all the way.”

MacDonald, who last appeared for Hull in April 2018, signed from Barnsley for an undisclosed fee in January 2018 but he has made only 13 league appearances for the Sky Bet Championship club.

The Winchester-born centre-half progressed through Reading’s academy and had loan spells at Salisbury, Basingstoke, Torquay (twice) and AFC Wimbledon.

MacDonald was released by Reading in 2013 and had permanent stints at Salisbury and Torquay before Barnsley signed him for an undisclosed fee in 2016.

Referees’ chief Mike Riley has admitted that four mistakes have been made by VAR in the Premier League so far this season.

Riley, a former referee from Leeds is the managing director of the officials body Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL).

Riley pinpointed two penalties which should have been awarded to Manchester City and West Ham, and a Newcastle goal should have been ruled out for offside.

It is understood that he told top-flight chairmen that Leicester midfielder Youri Tielemans should also have been sent off for his challenge on Bournemouth’s Callum Wilson in the match on August 31.

“If you look at the four match rounds 227 incidents have been checked,” he said.

“Out of that we’ve changed six decisions, (and) we think we should have changed 10 in total. That gives you the scale of where VAR can help and add value to the game. But it also demonstrates that this is still about refereeing a game of Premier League football on the pitch.”