MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Luis Suarez quietly returned home to Uruguay on Friday following his expulsion from the World Cup, long after a crowd that had come to greet him as a national hero had drifted away.

President Jose Mujica was among some 1,000 people who went to Carrasco International Airport in Montevideo to meet Suarez Thursday night, but he left after being told that Suarez’s flight had been delayed.