Media reports indicate that the reply which caused Joao Neves's partner, the Portuguese midfielder, to be subjected to online abuse from fans of his teammate Cristiano Ronaldo was a fake comment.
The post by actress Madeleine Araujo on Instagram received more than 7,000 comments, many of them abusive.
After Portugal drew 1-1 with the Democratic Republic of Congo in the World Cup, a Ronaldo fan posted a comment on Neves's girlfriend's personal page, asking her to tell her partner that he should pass the ball to Ronaldo, whom the comment described as "the greatest player in history".
The alleged reply from the actress read: "Tell the greatest player in history that he is very selfish."
However, media reports in Portugal suggested that this reply did not come from her, but was a manipulation using artificial intelligence.
Reports indicated that an Instagram account was created to post this reply, and it appeared deceptively similar to her original account.
Madeleine restricted the comments feature on her account due to the abusive comments she received.