Raheem Sterling has flown home from Qatar after armed robbers broke in and raided his Surrey mansion while his partner and young children were indoors.
The England international missed his nation's 3-0 World Cup last-16 win over Senegal after he learnt what happened on Saturday evening. He is understandably shaken and concerned about the well-being of his children.
Sterling has told Gareth Southgate he is hoping to be back for the quarter-final with France on December 10. But the Three Lions boss admitted this isn't a priority for Sterling or England at the moment. "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 told The Sun that around £300,000 of 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 about £300,000 of watches have been taken. The police were there several hours."
Southgate said following 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."
Sterling's partner Paige and young children were at his home during the raid and the Chelsea winger is understandably keen to get back to the UK to be with his family.
BBC presenter Gary Lineker posted his best wishes on Twitter, saying: "Thoughts are with Raheem Sterling and his family after their awful and harrowing ordeal." Former England star Stan Collymore described the burglary as "truly awful, frightening and callous."
England captain Harry Kane hailed England's storming 3-0 win over Senegal - and said they would be ready for world Champions France.
Kane was given the Man of the Match award after scoring the Three Lions' second after Jordan Henderson's opener and before the third from Buakyo Saka.
He said: "It was really tough, knockout games are never easy. I think we've shown great maturity through the tournament, and 3-0 against a really good side, credit to the boys, the mentality was top from the beginning and we took our chances when they came.
"We feel good, we've got good runners, good players getting forward, and it's solid at the back, three clean sheets in a row is really important. A really good day for us."
Regarding his goal, which leaves him one behind Wayne Rooney's all-time England scoring record, Kane said: "I had so much time, the ball just sat up nicely, the connection was perfect.
"I had a chance before that which I should have done better with, so it was nice to see that one go in. I'm a striker, so whenever I score I'm always happy."
He also commented on Sterling's situation, stating: “Our thoughts are with him and his family,” he said. “It is a private matter with him, but it’s never easy to see one or your teammates and friends have to deal with something like that.
“We will take it day by day and take the best decision for him and his family. From us as a team we send him our best and hope to see him as soon as possible.”
Jordan Henderson opened the scoring for England with his first goal of the tournament and added: "I hope everything's okay with Raheem's family at home. I hope he goes back and he can sort everything out, and hopefully he can come back, but all our thoughts and support is with him."
Sterling's Chelsea teammate, Kalidou Koulibaly, who captained Senegal, explained post-game said post-game that he would call Sterling to check in on him and his family.
"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"
The Three Lions will face France in the quarter-final on Saturday and hope Sterling is able to return to face the reigning world champions.
“It’s the biggest test that we can face,” Southgate said. “They’re world champions, incredible depth of talent, outstanding individual players, very difficult to play against and to score goals against.
“It’s a fantastic challenge, brilliant game for us to prepare for. The two quarter-finals that are already in place are fantastic, historic football rivalries and great games from the past.
“A brilliant game for us to be involved with and test ourselves against the very best.”
