Raheem Sterling’s Chelsea teammate Kalidou Koulibaly has sent a message of support after learning the England player’s home was raided by armed robbers.
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England head coach Gareth Southgate confirmed Sterling had left the camp to fly home from Qatar and be with his family after the robbery incident.
Reports suggested £300,000 worth of watches were stolen from the player’s home, not far from Chelsea’s Cobham training ground, with his fiancee and children at home at the time.
A number of figures from inside the game have sent messages to Sterling, including his Jordan Henderson and BBC host and former England striker Gary Lineker.
Koulibaly himself was part of the Senegal side well beaten by England on Sunday, and said he plans to call the 27-year-old to check in on him.
“I really didn’t know. I’m really surprised,” Koulibaly told reporters after England beat Senegal 3-0 to progress to the quarter-finals of the FIFA World Cup.
“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”
“At the moment, clearly the priority is for him to be with his family and we’re going to support that,” Southgate said of Sterling after England’s win. “We’re going to allow him to have as much time as he needs.
“He’s going home, yeah. I really don’t know because at the moment it’s a situation that he needs time with his family to deal with and I don’t want to put him under any pressure. S ometimes football isn’t the most important thing and family should come first.”
England’s win means Senegal’s World Cup dream is over, with the Africa Cup of Nations champions unable to recover after conceding two goals at the end of the first half. And Bukayo Saka rounded off the scoring before the hour mark in the second half.
No decision has been made regarding whether Sterling will return to Qatar to be part of England’s quarter-final squad against France on December 10, with Southgate conceding he and his group have to “wait and see”.
