Raheem Sterling is returning to England's World Cup base in Qatar after he was forced to fly home to the UK when his Surrey mansion was burgled by armed robbers.
Sterling's partner Paige and young children were inside the property when it was raided, prompting the shaken Chelsea winger to fly home to be with his family.
The England international was forced to miss the 3-0 World Cup last-16 win over Senegal as a result, with Gareth Southgate unable to confirm at the time whether he'd be returning to Qatar for the remainder of the tournament. Sterling was adamant that he wanted to return and will now rejoin the squad in Al Wakrah on Friday ahead of the quarter-final clash with France.
"Raheem wanted to return home because he was concerned for his young children," said a source. "They were at home during the raid. "He will come back to Qatar if he can - but he had to put his family first."
A source also told The Sun that watches were taken in the raid.
"This was terrifying for her and obviously traumatic for all the family," the source said. "Raheem will have been beside himself with worry when he heard. To be away when your partner and children are at home when an armed gang breaks in is beyond words.
"It looks like watches have been taken. The police were there several hours."
Southgate said after the win over Senegal: "We will have to wait and see [if he'll be back to play against France], at the moment, clearly the priority is for him to be with his family and we're going to support that.
"We've got to give him time to try to resolve that or be there for his family. That's the most important thing at this time, so we're going to give him that space.
"It didn't impact team selection. I spent a lot of time with Raheem this morning, but you know you have days where events happen and you have to deal with them.
"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 in which he needs time with his family. I don't want to put him under any pressure. Sometimes football isn't the most important thing and family should come first."
