Martin Taylor, the Birmingham City defender, has received death threats in the wake of his badly mis-timed tackle which broke the leg of Eduardo, the Arsenal and Croatia striker, on Saturday, it emerged today.

Thousands of Croatia fans, angry at Eduardo being ruled out of the Euro 2008 finals, have posted threatening messages on various internet sites, with one website specifically set up after the incident during Saturday’s 2-2 draw at St Andrews having already received 27,000 messages directed at the former Blackburn Rovers player.

In a separate, equally worrying incident, security staff at Birmingham's training ground had to intervene when Croatian journalists tried to get to the player in his car on Monday.

Taylor may feel like public enemy number one, but he has the total support of his manager, Alex McLeish.

"There has been a furore over the incident which has probably gone too far; we would like to draw a line under it now and let Martin get on with his career and hope Eduardo gets back as soon as possible," McLeish said in response to the tackle, which earnt his player a third-minute red card.

"I've heard about the death threats and you are going to ridiculous proportions if that is the case. You've just got to get on with it and dismiss those things. There are some crazy people in the world.

"I think Martin's wife was upset at the weekend but he has come in this morning and got on with his life again, thanks to the support of everyone who knew it wasn't a challenge with malicious intent to injure a player.

"We've had to rally around Martin because he was mentally shattered by the whole experience. I would have been worried about him coming into training today had we not received the support from football people the length and breadth of the country.

"But the fact he has had such magnificent support has helped Martin psychologically because I felt he could be damaged by this incident as well.

"We have shown as a club we are right behind the big fellow. We have rallied around him, got him back into training. It was important he did that as soon as possible."

McLeish put Taylor's challenge down to bad timing. "Their players and our players' horrified expression indicated it was a serious injury and that's why the ref reacted with the red card," McLeish said.

"I don't think it would have been (a red card) for the tackle itself. It was a mis-timed tackle, like a trip, although Martin's studs have made impact with Eduardo's ankle.

"It is a tragic injury for the lad and certainly for his club. Having played the game at the highest level for 20 years I used to go in for those challenges. I do wince at some challenges, but I never gave that challenge a second thought.

"Eduardo nicked it by Martin, Martin dived in and Eduardo was too quick for him. Free-kick, red card, horrific injury and all hell kicks off."