A YOUNG Rovers fan whose letters to Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka went viral was given a special surprise by two of his footballing heroes.

Seth Frankish, 11, wrote letters of support to Rashford and Saka following their online racist abuse after England's Euro 2020 final defeat to Italy, which went viral on social media with people across the country praising the St Barnabas CE Primary Academy schoolboy's warm hearted words.

But a greater surprise was in store for Seth, who plays as a goalkeeper for Lammack Juniors, when Blackburn Rovers number one Thomas Kaminski and defender Scott Wharton joined him in his Darwen classroom via Zoom on Friday morning.

Wharton said: "We saw your letters, Seth, that you sent to Saka and Rashford, which was a really nice thing of you to do and we’re really proud of you as a Blackburn Rovers fan.

"It was brilliant to see and you’ve done us all proud, so good on you.

"Keep going with your goalkeeping and we’ll sort you out with some tickets so you can come down to Ewood and watch the boys."

Both player were fulsome in their praise for the young football fans sentiments and for his strong stand against racism.

Kaminski said: “Seth made us all proud, writing letters like that, so hopefully we surprised him this morning and I can’t wait to meet him at the stadium soon.”

Seth's letter to Rashford described the England and Manchester United star as "an inspiration to our nation" thanks to his free school meals campaign last year.

He said: "You are an absolute role model and the whole world needs to look up to you.

"You have done our nation proud.

"Thank you for making sure hungry children were fed which is much more important than scoring a penalty.

"I will make sure to always challenge racism."

Seth's letter to Saka meanwhile said: "It doesn't matter that you missed your penalty, you're an inspiration to England.

"Thank you so much for being the voice of young football and a role model."