Kid who Grealish dedicated goal to almost missed game because he was in hospital

Jack Grealish scored England's sixth and final goal in a 6-2 demolition of Iran to kick off the Three Lions' World Cup campaign.

Coming off the bench to close out the match, Grealish capped off a fine team performance by getting into the right position to collect the ball from Callum Wilson and scored.

The Manchester City forward waved his arms around in celebration and some of those in the know realised that he was sending a message to one of his biggest fans.

Grealish recently met City fan Finlay, who wrote a letter to his favourite player and got a personal meeting with the England star in return.

While they hung out together, Finlay asked if Grealish could celebrate his next goal by doing the worm, but since the footballer can't do that dance, they agreed on the one the forward performed at the World Cup.

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Grealish made sure Finlay knew that one was for him, tweeting out a message to the young fan after the match and mentioning it in his post-match interview.

He said: "I said to him that the next time I score I would do the celebration for (him).

"I don't know how he'd rate my dance moves – to be honest I ain't the best dancer, unless it's later on in the night – but, honestly, I had to do it and I think he'll be buzzing at home that it happened in a World Cup instead of the Premier League."

Finlay, who has cerebral palsy, first wrote to his favourite player to praise him for his bond with sister Hollie, who also has the condition.

Grealish has said his sister is his best friend and spoken before about the support he gets from his family.

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Finlay was overjoyed when he saw that Grealish had remembered him in his celebrations, telling Good Morning Britain exactly how happy he was to see it.

He said: "I was just waiting for Jack Grealish to score and then there it was, I was just so excited. At first I thought he'd forget."

And it turns out that when the footballer did the celebration, the young fan was full of joy, shouting out 'he remembered!' after realising that Grealish was doing his celebration.

Finlay nearly missed the game after ending up in hospital on the morning of the match but was luckily able to get home in time to watch England beat Iran and his favourite player cap off a brilliant result.

He explained: "I hurt my leg in the morning and I had to sit in A&E for two hours until I was like 'come on, let me out, let me out, call my name'."

The City fan revealed that he only made it back home to watch England's game with 10 minutes to spare.

Topics: Football, Sport, World Cup

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker