Raheem Sterling pays tribute to Crystal Palace youth player Damary Dawkins during Euro 2020 qualifier

England's Raheem Sterling celebrates scoring his side's third goal of the game and shows a t-shirt in memory of former Crystal Palace youth player Damary Dawkins (Picture: PA)

Raheem Sterling paid touching tribute during England's match against Czech Republic on Friday to a Crystal Palace youth player who died from leukaemia.

Damary Dawkins, 13, a member of Crystal Palace’s elite development squad, was diagnosed with very rare acute lymphoblastic leukaemia aged nine.

Manchester City and England star Sterling stepped in with pleas to find a stem cell donor on his social media accounts and Crystal Palace also ran a campaign, working with blood cancer charity DKMS. In December a donor was finally found in the US.

Damary died on Sunday after relapsing twice following a transplant.

Raheem Sterling's touching tribute at the Euro 2020 qualifier (REUTERS)

After Sterling's second goal in the Euro 2020 qualifying campaign on Friday he celebrated by lifting up his shirt, showing a shirt underneath that featured a picture of himself with Damary.

Asked about the tribute after the match, Sterling said: "Damary was a kid that I was trying to help. We thought we found a donor and sadly it didn't match.

"I thought that I would do something for his family to have a smile about really."

Star supporter: Raheem Sterling visiting Damary Dawkins (Graham Chadwick/Daily Mail)

England beat the Czech Republic team 5-0 at Wembley on Friday night with Sterling scoring a hat-trick.