Denmark keeper Kasper Schmeichel says he and the rest of the squad were looking “beyond football and to the human being” when they paid for a private jet to fly Blues left-back Jonas Knudsen home to see his newborn daughter following Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Peru.

As reported on Sunday, the squad clubbed together to pay for the flight back to Denmark as a paternity gift to Knudsen, whose wife Trine had given birth to their first baby a number of weeks early last Tuesday. The defender, already in Russia, was surprised to learn that he had become a father from squad staff.

The three-times-capped 25-year-old, an unused sub against the Peruvians, spent Sunday with his wife and new daughter before flying back and rejoining his team-mates at the training base in Anapa on Monday.

"We're footballers but also human beings," Leicester keeper Schmeichel, 31, told a press conference earlier today ahead of the Danes' second Group C match against Australia in Samara on Thursday when Knudsen is again expected to be among the subs (ITV from 12.30pm, KO 1pm).

"I'm a father myself, I can't imagine how big it must have been for Jonas to get the message but not be there. We wanted to help him, there are lots of fathers in the squad.

"You've got to look beyond football and to the human being, so we'd have done everything so he could go and see his newborn baby.”

Elsewhere, former Blues keeper Neil Alexander, 40, has hung up his gloves having left Livingston and has taken the job as goalkeeper-coach at Dundee United.

Scotland international Alexander made 31 appearances for the Blues between July 2007 and January 2008.

Photos: Action Images

Ryorry added 20:46 - Jun 20 That's brilliant! Congratulations Jonas (and family!) and well done all those lads that got it together for him, big pats on many backs there :)
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Edmundo added 22:15 - Jun 20 A real highlight of this World Cup that seems to be revolving around the "big trams" again, so little attention to this story or the miracle that is Russia''s qualification for R2. On the Neil Alexander story, he's the best gk prior to Bart, imo over the last 15 years. Why not our gk coach?
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hollywoodginge added 22:30 - Jun 20 A brilliant touch by all concerned 👏🏻👏🏻
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FromIpswichToPhoenix added 23:02 - Jun 20 Hearing more humanitarian stories from the World Cup than the Whitehouse at the moment. Easy to see where the love is right now.
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harlingblue added 02:29 - Jun 21 A wonderful thing for the Denmark management to do. Congratulations Jonas on your new arrival, I wish you and Denmark all the very best for the rest of the tournement, unless it is against England.
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Marshalls_Mullet added 08:03 - Jun 21 Russia qualifying is no miracle. They beat Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Egypt are ranked 45, god knows what Saudi Arabia are ranked as. The miracle is that Russia secured such an easy group. Good on them for qualifying, but miracle? No.
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linhdi added 08:54 - Jun 21 A miracle that Russia got an easy group? Yeah, you can believe that if you're gullible enough
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SouperJim added 11:22 - Jun 21 Was also very convenient how, after being given almost the weakest possible combination of opponents in their group, the fixture computer had them play them in order from weakest to strongest so they could build some momentum.
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