ENGLAND hero Jordan Henderson threw his support behind Raheem Sterling by wearing his shorts after the winger’s house was burgled.
The Chelsea star, 27, was originally withdrawn from the squad to face Senegal for personal reasons.
It later emerged that Sterling’s Surrey mansion was the subject of an armed raid on Saturday night.
And standing by the star was team-mate Henderson, who sported Sterling’s No10 shorts once the final whistle was blown, as he greeted family in the stands in Qatar.
Sterling has raced back to the UK following the incident at his home – 15 minutes from Chelsea’s training ground in Cobham.
Terrified fiancée Paige Milian, 27 — at home with their two kids — raised the alarm when the gang took watches worth £300,000.
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Sterling could return to Qatar for Saturday’s quarter-final against France.
Boss Gareth Southgate said: “He is dealing with a family matter. I had quite a bit of time with him this morning but I have had to pass that on to other people to help him with that.
“He will go and deal with that matter and we will have to take it from there.”
It is not known if property developer Paige confronted the raiders or whether they fled when they realised someone was in.
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The gang may have thought she and the couple’s sons, aged five and three, were still in Qatar.
Before England’s first game she posted pictures of the two boys on a cruise ship in Doha, and she was tagged in social media images with cocktails.
A family source said: “This was terrifying for her and obviously traumatic for all the family.
“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.”
Without Sterling, England crushed Senegal 3-0 in their last-16 clash.
It was pal Henderson who opened the scoring and ease England’s nerves after 38 minutes.
Harry Kane finally broke his World Cup duck by smashing home a second deep into injury time in the first hald.
Bukayo Saka added gloss to the performance with a third on 57 minutes to wrap up the win.
However, after the game attention soon switched to Sterling – and it was Henderson who revealed his team-mates are fully behind his decision to return home.
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“It’s a blow but I hope everything is OK with Raheem’s family at home. I hope he goes back and can sort everything out,” Henderson said.
“I’m not sure if he can come back, I suppose he will have to assess when he’s there but all our thoughts and support are with him.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
