Egypt skipper Ahmed Elmohamady said he and his teammates back winger Amr Warda, who was expelled from the team a few hours before they reached the African Cup of Nations round of 16 with a 2-0 win over DR Congo on Wednesday.
Greek-based winger Warda was kicked out after several women, including an Egyptian fashion model, accused him of verbal sexual harassment on social media.
Elmohamady opened the scoring against DR Congo and made a "22" sign with his fingers in his goal celebration, in reference to the number of Warda's shirt.
"My celebration was for Warda, who is a member of our big family. We are all humans and we all make mistakes; we will not abandon him," the Aston Villa man told Egyptian sports channel Time Sports after the game.
"This is his personal life and as long as he is committed and disciplined with the team, we will not hold him accountable for things he does outside the team … we will stand by him and support him."
Defender Baher El-Mohamadi, who was kept on the bench, was also pictured holding aloft Warda's shirt.
Warda told local media that a video showing him naked, which was published by a Mexican woman on Wednesday, was fake.
"Egypt are a strong team that will not be affected by the absence of one player," Egypt coach Javier Aguirre told a news conference following the win over DR Congo.
"It's unfortunate to lose one of our players but that will not affect us."
Warda came on as a second-half substitute in the opening 1-0 win over Zimbabwe last Friday.
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