'A piece of me is gone' - ex-Liverpool defender Wisdom on being stabbed

Warning: This article contains references to violence

"Who knows where I'd be playing today had I not been stabbed," says former Liverpool defender Andre Wisdom.

"I wouldn't say that night ruined my career, but it definitely changed it."

After coming through the Reds academy to play 22 times for the first team, alongside club greats Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez, Wisdom left to join Derby County in 2017.

Three years later, while visiting family in Liverpool, he was stabbed.

Wsidom was attacked by several masked men who stole his designer watch after he left a house party in the early hours of the morning.

Following surgery, the defender recovered to play again for the Rams - but deep down he knew his career would never be the same again.

He was released by Derby in 2021 before having trials at Portsmouth, Birmingham and Sheffield United.

But it was not until September 2023 that he started playing regular football again at non-league Warrington Town, followed by a spell at Derry City in the League of Ireland last season.

Thirteen years after scoring on his Liverpool debut, external against Swiss club Young Boys in the Europa League at the age of 19, Wisdom now appears for part-time FC United of Manchester in the seventh tier of English football.

"To this day I still have pain in my body from being stabbed," the former England Under-21 captain tells BBC Sport.

Wisdom is brutally honest when he talks about the events that unfolded in the early hours of 28 June, 2020.

"I shouldn't have been there," he says about the house party he attended in Liverpool.

Lockdown restrictions were in place and pubs and restaurants closed due to Covid-19.

Hours earlier, Wisdom had played alongside Wayne Rooney in Derby's 2-1 win over Reading in the Championship at an empty Pride Park, a result that left Phillip Cocu's side three points outside the play-off places with seven games left.

"I should have been at home recovering after the game, but it was lockdown and I was eager to be outside," adds Wisdom, who joined Derby from Liverpool for £4.5m.

"I was leaving the party by myself, walking to my car. I was on the street and there were about five guys, balaclavas and knives. They said: 'Give us your watch.' I said no and a fight started.

"I didn't have time to run. I should have used my head but pride got in the way.

"Loads of people came out of the party after about five minutes of fighting. The attackers ran off and I was left covered in blood on the street. Everything happened really quickly.

"I was able to drive home, which was about a 15-20 minute journey. Adrenalin probably kept me going but only when I was home did I realise I'd been stabbed multiple times. I checked my thigh and the muscle was almost hanging out of the wound.

"That's when I phoned for an ambulance."

As well as his left thigh, Wisdom had also been stabbed in the head, buttocks and chest.

"Derby County can confirm that Andre Wisdom has been the victim of an unprovoked assault and robbery," read a club statement, external two days later.

"He sustained injuries which resulted in him being admitted to hospital, where he is in a stable condition. Merseyside Police are investigating and the club will focus its efforts on supporting Andre and his family."

The Rams rallied around their popular player, whom fans had grown to love ever since he first turned out for the club while on loan from Liverpool in 2013-14.

During that season, Wisdom experienced a sat-nav failure that saw his Porsche get stuck in a ditch, external on the way to the ground.

At the next home game, Derby fans sang: "Andre Wisdom, he parks where he wants."

After he was attacked in 2020, supporters raised thousands of pounds for a huge banner to be displayed inside Pride Park during matches, which read: 'Andre Wisdom: we are a family, we stick together.'

"I got a bit tearful about that," he says, reminiscing.

Wisdom, who dreamed of becoming a footballer as a child growing up in Chapeltown, Leeds, needed two operations to fix his wounds.

Remarkably, he was back playing for Derby within three months of the attack.

On 5 September 2020 - 69 days after he was stabbed - Wisdom made an 85th-minute substitute appearance in a League Cup tie against Barrow.

His battle to overcome the physical, emotional and mental trauma of his ordeal was lauded by his club.

But Wisdom had doubts as to whether he would ever return to peak fitness and form.

"My body just wasn't the same," he adds. "It was frustrating. I wasn't getting the same output in power and speed.

"I came back too soon. I was too eager, I wanted to be back in a football environment.

"I think that was me dealing with the emotion. I didn't want to sit at home and replay all the things that happened."

Wisdom went on to make 40 league and cup appearances for Derby the following season, but his four-year contract - which expired in June 2021 - was not renewed.

By then, Rooney had been appointed manager after Cocu was sacked three months into the season. The Rams were a mess financially and close to entering administration.

After Derby, Wisdom had trials at several clubs. The then 28-year-old was desperate to get his career back on track.

"I drove from my home near Liverpool to play one game for Portsmouth, but I didn't hear anything back. I just wanted to play football."

Despite his best efforts to put the events of 2020 behind him, Wisdom - who made a total of 48 Premier League appearance for Liverpool, West Bromwich Albion (loan) and Norwich City (loan) - knew his career as a professional player in England was pretty much over.

"Doctors say I have severe nerve damage down my left side as a result of what happened. I was stabbed in my head and today I still get headaches. It seems like a piece of me is gone. I get dull aches, it's borderline pain."

The emotional impact has also taken its toll.

"There were some days [during recovery] when I just stayed in my room all day, other days when I was a bit more: 'Hello, how is everyone doing?'

"When I go through something in life, whatever it is, I try to go through it on my own and deal with things.

"Even though I knew I had support, I didn't look for it because essentially it's my life, my body and my experience."

Wisdom, whose career also includes one season on loan in Austria with Red Bull Salzburg, says he has changed as a person.

"I like to move on from stuff, but what happened has made me more vigilant, made me more aware of my surroundings."

Yet despite everything he has been through, he refuses to dwell on his life-changing experience five years ago.

"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time," says Wisdom. "It happens everywhere.

"Thank God I'm good and that I made it through."

His attackers have never been caught.

While the scars on his body serve as a permanent reminder of what happened to him in 2020, Wisdom, 32, looks to the future with positivity.

He has a passion for property and has invested in several houses near Liverpool over the years, which he has rented out to Liverpool FC for their younger players to use.

Trent Alexander-Arnold, who joined Real Madrid in the summer, stayed in one of Wisdom's houses before he broke into Liverpool's first team.

Has Wisdom, who was at Liverpool from the age of 14, been back to Anfield to watch the Reds play since he left in 2017 at the age of 24?

"No, but I've just started doing my Uefa B coaching badge at Liverpool's academy in Kirkby. It's nice because there are people there who still remember me."

Today, he is content with playing before crowds of 1,500-2,000 at FC United of Manchester in the Northern Premier League Premier Division, the club he joined in the summer., external

On Saturday, FC United host local rivals Chadderton in the second qualifying round of the FA Cup. If they win that, Wisdom and his team-mates will be two victories from the first round proper.

"I'm really enjoying it," says the scorer of FC United's third goal in a 3-1 home win over Whitby Town on 19 August.

FC United of Manchester is owned by its fans and currently has 2,000-plus members, including Manchester United legend Eric Cantona and his family.

"I'm a fan of football, it doesn't matter to me what level I'm playing at," adds Wisdom. "I'm just grateful I'm still able to play."

If you, or someone you know, have been affected by any issues raised in this article, support and information is available at BBC Action Line.