The Football Association confirmed it will investigate after Balotelli posted a message on his official Twitter account late on Monday that linked to his Instagram page, where an image of computer game character Super Mario was accompanied by some potentially offensive language.
The Italian was criticised for making the post and subsequently removed the image from both of his accounts, before returning to Twitter to post an apology.
"I apologise if I've offended anyone," he wrote on Tuesday. "The post was meant to be anti-racist with humour.
"I now understand that out of context [it] may have the opposite effect.
"I used a cartoon done by someone else because it has Super Mario and I thought it was funny and not offensive. Again, I'm sorry."
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