Mexican boxing icon Canelo Alvarez in grovelling apology after threatening Lionel Messi in Argentina World Cup shirt row

CANELO ALVAREZ has issued a grovelling apology after his threat to Lionel Messi over the World Cup shirt row.

Argentina beat Mexico 2-0 in their World Cup Group C match with seven-time Ballon d'Or winner Messi getting a goal and an assist.

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Wild scenes in the Argentine dressing room followed as they kept their qualification hopes alive after losing their first group match 2-1 to Saudi Arabia.

A clip was shared of the joyous scenes, but it showed a Mexico shirt on the floor near Messi, and as the Paris Saint-Germain man took his boot off, his foot brushed the jersey - which boxer Canelo found disrespectful.

And that led to the Mexican boxing legend saying Messi “better pray to God that I don't find him”.

Canelo tweeted: “Did you guys see Messi cleaning the floor with our jersey and flag. He better pray to God that I don't find him.

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“Just like I respect Argentina, he has to respect Mexico! I'm not talking about the country as a whole, just about the bulls**t that Messi did.”

Former Argentina striker Sergio Aguero then became embroiled in a war of words with the Mexican boxing icon.

And Argentinian UFC star Santiago Ponzinibbio even offered to fight the four-weight world champion.

Now the 32-year-old, who beat Gennady Golovkin in September in their trilogy bout, has moved to end the feud.

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Ahead of Argentina’s crunch final group game with Poland and Mexico’s clash with Saudi Arabia, he took to Twitter to say sorry.

He wrote: “These last few days I got carried away by the passion and love I feel for my country and made comments that were out of place for which I want to apologise to Messi and the people of Argentina.

“Every day we learn something new and this time it was my turn.

“I wish both teams much success in their matches today and here we will continue supporting Mexico until the end.”