Raheem Sterling missed England s World Cup last-16 match against Senegal after travelling home following a raid by armed intruders on his home, Stats Perform understands.
The Chelsea forward was absent from Gareth Southgate s squad for the 3-0 win over the Africa Cup of Nations champions on Sunday.
England officials put it down to a family matter before kick-off, and it remains to be seen whether Sterling travels back to Qatar in time to feature in the quarter-final against France next Saturday.
The BBC reported the break-in at Sterling s London area home occurred on Saturday night.
Manager Gareth Southgate said after England s victory: Raheem is having to deal with a family situation. He s going back to England. We have to give him time to try to resolve that, or be there for his family. That’s the most important thing; we are going to give him that space.
It didn t impact team selection. I spent a lot of time with Raheem this morning, so you have days where events happen and you have to deal with them. He s on his way home. We are obviously mindful of him being allowed space and respect his privacy, so we don t want to talk about it in too much detail.
It s not ideal for the group ahead of the big game, but it pales into insignificance – individual is more important than group in these moments.
The scorer of England s opening goal, Jordan Henderson, told ITV: I hope everything s okay with Raheem s family at home and I hope he goes back and can sort everything out. Hopefully he can then come back, but I suppose he ll have to assess when he gets there. All our thoughts and support is with him.
England defender Eric Dier was asked by Stats Perform about Sterling s absence, and said: We all wish him and his family well. We hope everyone s okay.
I just found out before the game. I don t know more than that, just wish him all the best.
Thoughts are with and his family after their awful and harrowing ordeal.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker)
Midfielder Declan Rice indicated the day had begun as any other, with Sterling in camp.
I literally saw him at breakfast this morning and then the manager said he s had some difficulty with his family at home, Rice said. We ll send him a message and wait to hear more.
Sterling s Chelsea team-mate, Senegal centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly, was unaware of the reports.
Really? I didn t know. I really didn t know, I m really surprised, Koulibaly told reporters.
I hope that his family is good. Now I will call him and see what happened, I just hope he is good and his family is good.
