For those with young children, that is a particularly difficult experience and several Manchester United players have missed their loved ones while representing their nations this summer. 

The advent of video calling has made this hardship much easier, but there is nothing like physical contact and that much is evident in a heart-warming video shared by Victor Lindelof’s wife, Maja. 

Our cultured defender has been away since the end of May due to his participation at Euro 2020 with Sweden, playing a starring role in their group-stage success and winning the UEFA Star of the Match award against Spain. 

Victor’s tournament unfortunately ended on Tuesday night following a 2-1 defeat to Ukraine, who scored in the dying seconds of extra-time to set up an anticipated quarter-final against England. 

The only positive for Lindelof is that he has now been reunited with his young family and the footage, as you can see in the video above, is genuinely touching. 

NEXT UP AT EURO 2020

There are four United players still involved in the quarter-finals of the competition. 

David De Gea is the first one who could be in action, when Spain take on Switzerland at 17:00 BST on Friday. The goalkeeper has been an unused substitute in all four matches so far but could feature on this occasion, after first choice Unai Simon made a high-profile error in the previous round. 

Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw are both expected to start on Saturday night when England face Ukraine at 20:00 BST. Marcus Rashford is likely to be on the bench again, based on Gareth Southgate’s use of the popular forward so far this summer. 

Visit our live Euro 2020 blog for rolling updates on the tournament.