The recent Black Lives Matter movement has affected everyone in sport, and with players such as the Liverpool squad stopping in their tracks during training to show solidarity with BAME players, fans and people in general who have been affected, the subject has never been more prominent in sport.

This is, of course, a great thing. Racism in life, as well as sport, is intolerable at any level and in any walk of life. There has been racism in football before, but the kind of sickening abuse that England players received when on duty in Bulgaria was a stark reminder that it still, shockingly, exists. The Black Lives Matter movement has affected one man who was in Bulgaria on that day – Raheem Sterling.

The Manchester City winger has conducted an interview with Newsnight on the BBC, and in it, he has referred to racism as ‘the only disease we’re fighting’. He backed the Black Lives Matter movements that have been taking place in the major cities and hailed the importance of the momentum that the fightback against racism has gathered. Despite the possible loss of health or life to COVID-19, people are still protesting in their thousands, something Sterling believes is vital to the cause and has huge significance.

“This is the most important thing at this moment in time,” said the Manchester City and England wing-forward. “This is something that is happening for years and years.”