Raheem Sterling’s England teammates rallied around him after finding out he needed to fly home.
Sterling left the World Cup camp to return to the UK after armed intruders broke into his home overnight while his partner and two kids were there.
The Chelsea forward was not part of Gareth Southgate’s squad as they beat the African champions Senegal 3-0 on Sunday to set-up a quarter-final clash with France.
Speaking after the game, Southgate told talkSPORT: “I had a long time with him this morning working out how best to deal with everything. He’s going to go home tonight, he’s probably on his way home.
“The priority is his family and we’ve got to be able to give him he space to sort things out there, then we will see if he’s able to come back.”
Sterling’s England teammates showed their support after the match.
Jordan Henderson was pictured wearing a pair of Sterling’s shorts, that had the number 10 on it.
Harry Maguire spoke to talkSPORT after the game and said all the squad were behind him and offered their support.
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He said: “It’s really disappointing to hear that Raheem has had to go home and sort things out this morning, so we haven’t had time to speak to him this morning. Our full focus was on the game.
“To lose a key player tonight, the game could have gone different and we might have needed Raheem tonight.
“To lose him over something that’s out of our hands is disappointing. We are all here for him.
“I think we’ll find out more in the next few hours, but we are all here for him and his family and it’s extremely disappointing to hear that when we are out here playing for our country and giving absolutely everything for our country and there are people back home targeting us.”
Senegal and Chelsea defender Kalidou Koulibaly admitted he did not know what had happened to Sterling prior to the game and sent his best wishes.
He said: “I really didn’t know. I’m really surprised. I hope his family is good. Now I will call him and see what happened to him. But I hope he will be good and his family is good.”
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