Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba has defended a former rival.

The French midfielder has defended Everton ace Dele Alli.

Pogba knows Alli well from their tussles when the latter was at Tottenham as a youngster.

"I saw Dele do the interview. It is so easy now he's spoken out for everybody to be behind, support him but for so long they've been killing him," Pogba explained to Al Jazeera.

"But who, when they were killing him, I saw nobody in the media ask him what's going on, mentally and stuff like that.

"We're going through a lot, we grew up to play football, we didn't grow up to get ready for the media. They will bring you up so high, then bring you down to destroy you. I didn't learn to get ready for the negative talk, the criticism - I just came to play football.

"I was with my friends playing, then you get to a first team, you play and score goals, get all the praise, hailed as the best young player. Then, things happened in his life and they're destroying him, no one is asking if he's okay, they don't care."