Emotional Jamie Carragher opens up on ‘darkest moment of my life’

• Jamie Carragher’s son, James, has suffered knee injuries in short career so far
• The Liverpool legend says he was ‘in a dark place’ as he watched his son suffer
• Click here to follow Mail Sport’s Euro 2024 WhatsApp Channel for all the latest breaking news and updates from Germany

An emotional Jamie Carragher held back tears as he spoke about the darkest moment of his life when his footballer son struggled with knee injuries. 

The Liverpool legend rarely suffered injuries during as successful career that saw him play 737 times for Liverpool across 17 years. 

However, centre-back James, who spent the second half of the season on loan from Wigan at Scottish side Inverness, has been hampered by serious knee injuries that have jeopardized his career. 

46-year-old Carragher has said he never understood why some of his team-mates seemed to be injured during his playing days, but his perspective shifted in recent years. 

In November 2021, James suffered a serious knee injury while playing for Wigan in  just his third professional match. 

Speaking to Peter Schmeichel and Ian Wright on the Overlap, Carragher revealed he was in a ‘dark place’ as he watched his son suffer during the Covid period. 

He said: ’12 months ago I was in a dark place over my son’s injuries. I didn’t get injured and my mentality with injuries was I would go in the treatment room and see people on the bed and, I could never get this out of my head, I’d say they are faking it – they’re not tough enough. Because I didn’t get injured, I couldn’t understand that people got injured.

‘I had a broken leg but someone did my leg or I had a knee operation but in terms of hamstring, calf, or something not feeling right, I would play through things. That was just the way I was brought up and I’d dismiss people. I couldn’t understand things. And then my own son went through it.

‘He had a knee problem on the back of Covid, so Covid came in and no-one could go to the training ground, so I said you’ll have to do a bit of training on your own, we don’t know when you go back. One-on-one coaching, knee blows up, but you couldn’t even go to the hospitals. Everything was closed. You couldn’t get an operation, nothing, couldn’t see a physio.

‘This knee would keep swelling up and swelling up and it went on for a couple of years. He had the operation and then I’m thinking OK he’s going to be back now.’

James was loaned to Oldham in September 2022 but disaster struck again as his knee gave way after just five appearances. 

Carragher revealed he abandoned his holiday after receiving the news of James’ second injury and started to make plans of what the pair can do together if his son’s career was to end prematurely.

He continued: ‘He’d been playing on with it, anti-inflammatories, all that kind of stuff, went to non-league, played with Oldham, then got a knock on the knee, right let’s get the operation. I could see his face.’

‘Got the operation, OK finally now after two years he’s been to see the best person in London, great. Start pre-season, I go on holiday, and as soon as he phoned me, because I knew it was a big day, first day back from the group, and I get the call and already my stomach (drops). 

‘I’m on holiday and as soon as I get that phone call I’ve booked a flight that night straight away, holiday’s finished for me. I’ve gotta get home. Because I know he can’t be at home on his own with this because his big thing was “I’m back for pre-season”. And seeing him and what we went through last summer to try to get to the bottom of it… I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.

‘Seeing him play now and the fact that he’s OK. I was thinking ‘is he going to play again?’ I remember on the flight home I made a list of things me and him could do together. 

‘I’ve gotta keep him going, we’ll do a podcast together, we’ll do this together, we’ll watch all the best games round the world, I’m thinking I’ve got to keep him going because I’m thinking mentally, I knew where I was but I’m thinking what about him.

‘It was probably one of the darkest moments of my life, really emotional.’

Fast forward almost two years, James looks to have moved on from his knee injuries as he thrived at Inverness in recent months. 

He joined the Scottish Championship side on loan in January and made 20 appearances across all competitions. 

The defender will seek to continue his momentum and stay injury free as he enters the last year of his contract at the DW Stadium.