Fabian Delph has revealed how one of his potential World Cup final opponents helped him get home for the birth of his daughter.

Midfielder Delph was allowed to leave the England camp after the Group G defeat to Belgium, when his Manchester City team-mate Vincent Kompany came to his rescue.

Delph returned to the squad in time to make a substitutes’ appearance in the quarter-final win over Sweden after the last-16 success against Colombia had helped his wife go into labour.

“Vincent Kompany’s family came out for the Belgium game and I am close with him and the family, so I flew back with Vincent’s family on a private plane,” said Delph. “It was just me, his children and his wife.

“They had just beaten us, so I didn’t know whether to speak to them! He has three lovely kids and they were running about. On my way back I was just on my own on the plane. Fair play to the FA who looked after me. Now I am really looking forward to Wednesday.”

Not only did Eric Dier’s penalty clinch England’s progression past Colombia, it also sent Delph’s wife Natalie into labour.

“It was actually that game that took her into labour,” he said. “During the game she was diving about watching and she then went into hospital afterwards. She had the baby, I got back and had a session with the lads.

“For me, personally, it has been one of the best weeks of my life. If not the best week of my life. I obviously had a few days back home for the birth of my third child. The gaffer gave me a couple of days to get back so to come back and be involved in a fantastic squad and not only that, to get some minutes is absolutely fantastic.”

While the rest of England’s players have had to rely on social media and the internet, Delph’s quick trip home gave him a first-hand taste of the public reaction to Gareth Southgate’s team.

“It is crazy,” said Delph. “We are out here in our bubble, our circle, and we do not have outside distractions so we are not aware of what is going on. But going back for three or four days it was incredible.

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“The support I felt was absolutely amazing, even people who are not into football are stopping me and shouting and saying ‘make sure you bring it home’. It is overwhelming. I have told a couple of the lads about it and they could not believe it. We are in for a shock when we are finished and go home.

“But we will take each game at a time. We are going into the next game to win. We set out to win the competition and that is still the end goal. Tune in - we are excited and confident.”