Following West Ham's win over Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon, Andriy Yarmolenko delivered a heartfelt response regarding the ongoing hostilities in his home country, Ukraine.
The forward broke down in tears after scoring the first goal in the Hammers' 2-1 victory at the London stadium.
Yarmolenko was given a few days off on compassionate leave by the Hammers late last month after Russia invaded his home nation.
His goal against Villa was his first for West Ham since events begun to unfold in his country, and he was understandably emotional at the end of the game.
"It was so emotional for me because of the situation in my country," he said.
"It is so difficult for me right now in this moment thinking about football because every day, the Russian army is killing Ukrainian people.
"It was so emotional. To be honest, I don’t know what to say. I just want to say thank you to my team-mates, who support me all the time, every day. To West Ham fans, they also support me and Ukrainian people and also to all British people, because we feel you support us. Thank you, really.
"I felt the support from the fans and I tried to give everything on the pitch because I know how important the game was for us today. I'm not ready for 100% because the last two weeks I train maybe three or four times.
"Since 26 February, I had to rest for four days because it was impossible to train, I was just thinking about my family and my people. I just tried to give everything on the pitch."
Then speaking about his goal, Yarmolenko added: "Said [Benrahma] gave me the ball. In the box, you don’t have a lot of time and you need to do everything really quick and I was quick enough.
"For me, it is really important to feel the support from the manager and my team-mates and the fans. When I feel it, I give everything for the fans and the club."
David Moyes also commented on the situation, and stated how the club have been helping Yarmolenko at this difficult time.
"We have offered [to do more than compassionate leave], the club have been great and given him everything they can and asked what can we do.
"Karren Brady has been on the phone, asking what can we do, is there anything more, is there anything we can do. If any of his family members are over we would try and make sure we can do the right things for them if we had to do that.
"But you or anybody else would do the same if you were in that position."
