Alan Hansen's illustrious career from Liverpool trophies to Match of the Day

On Sunday, Liverpool Football Club confirmed legendary defender Alan Hansen was "seriously ill" and had been admitted to hospital.

The 68-year-old signed for the Reds shortly after their first European Cup triumph under Bob Paisley in 1977 and spent 14 years at Anfield before retiring in 1991.

In total, Hansen, who captained Liverpool the eighth most times in club history, won eight First Division titles and three European Cups after signing from Partick Thistle. In the days after his playing career, Hansen became one of the pillars of BBC Sports' football coverage in the modern era.

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But it was not just in football that Hansen left his mark, proven by the news of his ill health this weekend being met with an outpour of support from friends, ex-team-mates and stars of today as the likes of Steven Gerrard, Gary Lineker and Andy Robertson sent well wishes to the Scot.

Who is Alan Hansen?

In making over 600 appearances for Liverpool, Hansen is regarded as one of the finest defenders in the club's history and captained the Reds to the 1990 First Division title.

In total, Hansen, who was managed by legendary figures such as Paisley, Joe Fagen and Sir Kenny Dalglish during his stories Anfield career, won 25 honours after signing from Partick Thistle.

In Liverpool's 132-year history, only nine men have tallied more appearances than Hansen's 620. Ian Callaghan tops the standings with an incredible 857.

What did Alan Hansen do after his Liverpool career?

After calling it a day on his illustrious playing career at the end of the 1990-91 season, Hansen rejected several offers to pursue a management career - with Huddersfield Town and Manchester City among those to offer the Scot a chance in the dugout.

However, Hansen soon began a career in media and worked for both Sky and BBC, with his time at the latter spanning 22 years before retiring in 2014 after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

What did Alan Hansen say about Sir Alex Ferguson on Match of the Day?

It was during his time in front of the cameras that the legendary Hansen made headlines as he urged Sir Alex Ferguson to buy players at the start of the 1995/96 season and insisted Manchester United "can't win anything with kids" after a 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa in August.

That was after Ferguson fielded a youthful United side with academy graduates Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes and David Beckham.

United would recover from their dismal opening-day defeat at Villa Park by going on to win the Premier League, leaving Hansen to admit he got his early-season prediction all wrong.

Reflecting on his 20 years later in 2016, Hansen said: “They had a T-shirt on sale at Old Trafford, Man United sent me one. The line actually came from Bob Paisley."

When did Alan Hansen retire?

Hansen retired from professional football in 1991. However, the Scot served as a TV pundit for nearly 25 years before calling it a day in 2014.

He has since shunned the limelight, doing very little in terms of TV or interviews, though has kept in close contact with his former team-mates and was pictured alongside Sir Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards last year.