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7th June 2016
11:13pm BST

"It was my charity event, my first annual charity event in Birmingham that night," Sturridge said.
"My family had put the event on and they were texting me the whole night. I wasn't sat on the bench, I was behind the bench. I'm watching the game. "It's important to watch my team-mates play but if I receive a text message about my charity event of course I'm going to reply to it. That’s important to me, just as much as it is here. I'm trying to do something positive for my community in Birmingham as well as in Jamaica. Of course I want my teammates to do well and there was no disrespect at all."The manager said he had no problem with it because I was sat behind the bench, not on the bench with the team."
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