Jan 9 (Reuters) - Adelaide United's Josh Cavallo called out homophobic abuse that was directed at him during an A-League draw with Melbourne Victory on Saturday, saying he had "no words" to describe his disappointment.

Cavallo became the first active A-League player to come out as gay in October 2021, drawing support from fellow professionals across the world.

"I'm not going to pretend that I didn't see or hear the homophobic abuse at the game last night," Cavallo said on Instagram. "There are no words to tell you how disappointed I was.

"This shouldn't be acceptable and we need to do more to hold people accountable.

"I will never apologise for living my truth and most recently who I am outside of football."

Cavallo also urged Meta Platforms Inc-owned social media platform Instagram to step up its efforts in combating online abuse.

"To Instagram I don't want any child or adult to have to receive the hateful and hurtful messages that I've received," Cavallo said.

"I knew truly being who I am that I was going to come across this. It's a sad reality that your platforms are not doing enough to stop these messages." (Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)