Alex Scott: Racist abuse left me scared to leave the house

Alex Scott was "scared to leave the house" after receiving a torrent of racist abuse when she was incorrectly named as the host of 'A Question of Sport'.

The 39-year-old former footballer was rumoured to have replaced Sue Barker as the host of the BBC quiz show, when Paddy McGuinness had in fact landed the role, but that didn't stop social media trolls hurtling racist and misogynistic abuse at Alex, which left her terrified to go outside.

She told Women's Health magazine: "I was scared to leave my house to even go to the shops.

"That’s the stage we’d got to - that the idea someone black might be replacing a national treasure could cause such hatred."

However, Alex has tried to use the horrific moment as "a bit of ammunition to keep going and celebrate because you’re rubbing people up the wrong way", and she is now open to "being more vulnerable".

She added: "I’m gonna keep thriving, I’m gonna keep killing you with my kindness and doing my job to a level that you cannot stand.

"I'm in this bubble at the moment ... I am more open to accepting and being more vulnerable.

"I’m enjoying being like, 'OK, I’m just gonna roll with this.' "

Alex is gearing up to co-host the BBC's Euro 2024 coverage, but she had a scare when working for the corporation at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

The ex-Arsenal star previously told how she was nearly kidnapped by an Uber driver in Moscow.

She had ordered a car for a 15-minute journey to her hotel, during which the "stacked, bald" driver used Google translate to tell her she wouldn't be making it home, resulting in her body going "numb".

In her memoir 'How (Not) To Be Strong', she wrote: "He looked at me and said - in English - ‘Tell them they will never see you again.’

"‘I don’t understand,’ I stammered.

"My Uber driver picked up his phone and spoke into it, waiting for me to see the words as they appeared via Google Translate. ‘Tonight I am not taking you home,’ [it] read. ‘You come with me.’

"'Oh my God,’ was my first thought... ‘I’m never going to see Mum again.’ "

But Alex told the driver she was meeting Russian president Vladimir Putin the next day, after she had met him at the Kremlin alongside fellow BBC pundit Rio Ferdinand earlier that day.

She warned the motorist that Putin would "find" him if she wasn't there to meet him, and he started driving back to her hotel.

Alex wrote: "Putin! I had been with Putin that morning! ‘You can’t kill me,’ I said. ‘I have to see Putin tomorrow.'

"He started laughing. ‘No one sees Putin’. I was scrambling now, pulling up photos from the morning’s visit to the Kremlin that had made newspaper headlines. His laughter died and I could see the cogs whirring as he tried to process what I was showing him. ‘If I don’t see Putin tomorrow, he will find you.’ "