The Swedish Football Association and Coca-Cola unveiled four statues of the country's star footballers in the build-up to the tournament.

Fischer's statue, located in the city of the club she is joining from German side VfL Wolfsburg after the Women's World Cup, was knocked off its base yesterday morning. 

The statue is set to be rebuilt.

“It illustrates very much how this initiative was completely right,” said team mate Caroline Seger, who also has a statue.

“It’s an issue that becomes even more important and there is a need to lift all the questions around equality even more.

“Then I must say that I don’t really want to comment. 

"I don’t want to give this person or these people who did this the space to be seen or talked about.”

Fischer, who has 175 caps for Sweden, is often vocal about women's and gay rights. 

She was named Swedish LGBTQ person of the year in 2014. 

Following the news, Fischer played in her country's 5-1 thrashing of Thailand.