Raheem Sterling has spoken out in defence of Joe Gomez after his England teammate was booed by fans at Wembley on Thursday.
Manchester City winger Sterling was left out of the England squad that secured qualification to Euro 2020 with a 7-0 rout of Montenegro after a bust-up with Gomez on Monday.
The confrontation came 24 hours after the pair had squared up during City's Premier League defeat at Liverpool on Sunday.
England manager Gareth Southgate confirmed Sterling would miss the Montenegro fixture as punishment and he will return to the squad against Kosovo next week.
Sterling arrived with the squad at Wembley, but took his place in the stands alongside suspended midfielder Jordan Henderson.
Gomez was introduced as a second half substitute, but some booing could be heard from England fans as he entered the field. Sterling was seen applauding his teammate.
After the game, Sterling took to Twitter to condemn the booing, taking responsibility for the incident on Monday and supporting Gomez.
"To all the @England fans, I wanted to leave things as it was but tonight I have to speak again," he posted.
"It was hard for me to see my team mate get booed for something that was my fault. Joe hasn’t done anything wrong & for me to see someone who keeps his head down and work hard... especially after a difficult week for him to be booed when he came on tonight was wrong.
"I’ve taken full responsibility and accepted the consequence. I felt as though I had to say this. Get home safe every one."
Before the game, England manager Gareth Southgate had praised Sterling for his response in training this week.
“A difficult decision," he told ITV.
"We made that decision earlier in the week and we’ve moved on from there and everybody is focused on the game.
“Raheem has trained brilliantly all the way through the week, he will start on Sunday.
“It is a difficult situation for both of us during the week but we drew a line under it on Monday night and now it is all about getting qualification tonight.”
