Jude Bellingham has given a heartfelt update on how Trent Alexander-Arnold is coping with the death of his former Liverpool team-mate Diogo Jota.
The football world has been left stunned by the sudden death of Jota and his brother Andre Silva after the pair were killed in the early hours of July 3 in a car crash in northern Spain.
According to initial police findings, their car, a Lamborghini Huracan, suffered a tyre blowout while overtaking and subsequently left the road, before then catching fire.
It has been widely reported that Jota was travelling through Zamora after he had undergone surgery recently in his native Portugal and been advised not to fly by doctors, and so was intending to travel back to the UK via a ferry from Santander to report back for pre-season training at Liverpool.
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A wake has been held for Jota and his brother in Gondomar in Portugal and the pair's funeral is taking place on Saturday.
The 28-year-old moved to Liverpool from Wolves in 2020 for more than £40m and scored 65 goals in 182 games for the Anfield club.
In that time, Jota won the Premier League title, the FA Cup and two League Cups, while he has also won the UEFA Nations League twice with Portugal.
Across those five seasons, Jota was a team-mate to Alexander-Arnold, who departed Liverpool over the summer to move to Real Madrid, with the Spanish club paying a transfer fee to release the defender a month early so he could feature at the FIFA Club World Cup.
The move to the Spanish capital means Alexander-Arnold now shares a club dressing room with England team-mate Bellingham at the Santiago Bernabeu.
And Bellingham has given a heartfelt update on how Alexander-Arnold is coping with the shock death of his former Liverpool team-mate, explaining that the defender is dealing with the news in his own way and the Real Madrid dressing room have supported him as he passed on his condolences to Jota's family for their loss.
He told reporters: "It's been a really tough day for him to process. I think they were team-mates for five years.
"As a team, we were there to support him and I think he's dealt with it in his own way. He's had a lot of time to reflect and think about what's happened.
"Obviously it's a terrible shame and I'm sure everyone, every player, every club, sends their condolences and their love to his family.
"It's a horrible bit of news and we hope that they're grieving and that they have the privacy and the comfort to do so."
Topics: Liverpool, Diogo Jota, Real Madrid, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jude Bellingham
John McDougall