Former Liverpool defender Andre Wisdom has revealed the devastating impact that being stabbed had on his professional career - admitting he is still unable to get the best performance levels out of his body nearly three years after the incident.
The 29-year-old defender, who joined Liverpool as an academy prospect in 2008 and spent a further nine years at Anfield before leaving for Derby County in 2017, was stabbed in June 2020 by a group in balaclavas after attending a house party in Toxteth.
After refusing to surrender his watch to the masked gang in the early hours of the morning, Wisdom was stabbed repeatedly in the left and right side of his buttocks before he was able to flee the scene and make his way back home. It was only once driving away from the scene, Wisdom says, that he realised he had been stabbed multiple times with a blade.
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The Yorkshire-born defender who has been without a club since the expiration of his contract at Derby County in the summer of 2021, has revealed the extreme effects the incident has had on his career despite blaming himself for attending the gathering he admits he "shouldn't have been at".
Speaking on the Beautiful Game Podcast, Wisdom said of the incident nearly three years ago: "I was at a place where I shouldn't have been at, a party. I think that time of year it was lockdown and I was quite eager to get out outside a bit without doing too much.
"When I was leaving there were like five guys with balaclavas and knives said 'give me your watch'. I said 'no' so what else happens, we start fighting and yeah that was it. I drove home after the incident and then I realised I'd been stabbed multiple times.
"I drove home by myself. Loads of people came out of the party after five minutes of wrestling and they ran off. I'm covered in blood in the street and I'm just like 'f*** sake,' gone home and rang the ambulance from my house.
"It was frustrating as when I've come out of the hospital after like three days, I had a couple of operations, it was like my body just wasn't the same.
"I tried to get back into football and it wasn't the same, I wasn't getting the same output in terms of power or speed.
Wisdom, who also had spells at West Bromwich Albion, Norwich City and Red Bull Salzburg, ended his four-year stay in the Midlands with the Rams embroiled in financial uncertainty in 2021 and later had trials at Portsmouth, Birmingham City and Sheffield United but none of the Football League outfits made an offer to the former England under-21s defender.
"It was hard to take and with that comes a lot of other niggles," added Wisdom on the difficulties he faced in late 2020. "I got stabbed in the head I got headaches. A little cut here, I couldn't breathe that well when I came out of the hospital because I had fluid on my lungs.
"I think I rushed coming back to football. So once I could walk, which was like three weeks I went straight back to football. As men, we get ahead of ourselves. I played two games and I wasn't right and my ego wouldn't let me accept it.
"It was the last year of my contract and Derby were going through the financial issues so I remember speaking to my agent at the time I was like I'm going to play so I'm in the shop window and then rest in the summer. Then I ripped my groin."
Despite nearly two years out of the professional game, Wisdom's shrewd understanding of finances has seen him develop particular business ventures which have allowed him to start a prosperous partnership with Liverpool FC, who handed him his Premier League debut in 2012.
"I've always thought about what to do with my money and yeah, I got into property," he added. "Started doing property. I've got some houses I rent to Liverpool and they put some of the young players in there when they come from different cities, X, Y and Z. And their families live in some of my houses.
"You don't need to spend that much [money]. A lot of things are like materialistic things and when you get them out of your system when you are young there's only so much more that you care about. Of course, buy what you want and do what you want with your money but some days it gets rainy and I'm in one of those rainy times, and it can get peak!"
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