Rice express support for Ukrainian teammate Yarmolenko

Declan Rice

has expressed his and

’s support for

Andriy Yarmolenko

, who has been handed compassionate leave.

The club announced that the player was given time off by

David Moyes

as his homeland Ukraine was invaded by Russia.

The player, who was raised in Chernihiv and played in Kyiv has 106 caps for his country.

After the 1-0 victory over Wolves in the

, Rice talked about how difficult the last few days had been for his team-mate and he has expressed his support for the Ukrainian people.

"

It's so, so important for me, for the team, for everyone at the club to support [Yarmolenko],"

Rice told

Sky Sports

.

"The day it all started, we saw him at the training ground and he was in bits, and so were all the lads for him.

"We're all there for him, we're all there for the people of Ukraine. It's horrible what's happening, but we're all there with Yarma and the little tap on the shirt [bearing Yarmolenko's name] to start the game obviously brought some good luck.

"Tomas [Soucek] has spoken to him a little bit more, but we've all sent him a little message and he sent us a message in the group chat before the game saying 'good luck boys', so I'm sure that brought good luck for us today."

The West Ham manager stated earlier that Yarmolenko was

"not in a really good position at the moment".

Before Sunday’s game, London Stadium represented the Ukrainian flag that had a message saying:

"Love and prayers to Andriy Yarmolenko and the people of Ukraine".

The Hammers players warmed up wearing t-shirts that had Yarmolenko’s name, whereas the fans wore shirts showing the message "no to war".

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