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England's Fabian Delph to fly home for birth of child - sources

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Jay Ajayi cannot believe Rashford's miss (0:39)

Philadelphia Eagles' Jay Ajayi watches Marcus Rashford blow his chance to bring England level with Belgium. (0:39)

Fabian Delph has been granted permission to fly home from World Cup duty to be present for the birth of his third child, sources have confirmed to ESPN FC.

The Manchester City midfielder departed from Kaliningrad on a separate plane to the rest of the England squad after playing 90 minutes in Thursday's 1-0 defeat against Belgium, with his wife Natalie due to give birth on Saturday.

"She's tough, she's a Yorkshire lass so she'll deal with it," Delph said of the situation last month. "[England manager] Gareth Southgate has been fantastic. There's nothing more important than family to me -- family always comes first and always will."

Southgate granted Delph permission to leave the squad ahead of the tournament, though he is expected to return to Russia on Sunday and be available for England's round-of-16 match against Colombia in Moscow on Tuesday.

Delph was one of the new starters for England's final Group G game against Belgium as Southgate made eight changes, but the City midfielder will likely be back among the substitutes against Colombia.