Chelsea apologises for Kenedy's offensive Instagram messages while on pre-season tour of China

The club say that Kenedy has been 'strongly reprimanded and disciplined'

Kenedy has made 15 Premier League appearances for Chelsea (Getty)

Chelsea apologised to China on Sunday for social media comments by Brazilian player Kenedy which it accepted "caused great offense and hurt the feelings" of the country during the Premier League champions' pre-season tour.

The 21-year-old Kenedy has been "strongly reprimanded and disciplined" for the Instagram posts, Chelsea said. The since-deleted messages featured a profanity relating to China and a message mocking a security guard he photographed.

"Even though he quickly deleted the messages and apologised, and the club also apologised via our Chinese social media channels, the damage had already been done," the London club said.

"Chelsea Football Club once again solemnly and sincerely apologises.

"Kenedy's actions were a mistake that he will learn greatly from. His behaviour does not represent the entire team and does not align with the club's high expectations and strict requirements of its young players."

The messages were posted ahead of Chelsea's 3-0 victory over Arsenal in Beijing on Saturday.

Chelsea have been on a pre-season tour of China (Getty)

"Everyone at Chelsea Football Club has the utmost respect and admiration for China and loves our Chinese fans," Chelsea said.

"It is because of this that the negative impact we have seen over the last two days has left us shocked and saddened. Once again, we sincerely apologise for the hurt caused to our Chinese fans as well as to the Chinese people."