I am angry for getting stabbed, says former Liverpool player now in non-League

“Basically, I shouldn’t have been there,” admits Andre Wisdom. The former Liverpool and Derby defender is reflecting candidly on the night in June 2020 when, as he left a Toxteth house party, Wisdom was stabbed several times.

“I shouldn’t have gone by myself given the area it was in, the type of party it was – not that it was a crazy party – but I’ve grown up in similar areas to that,” Wisdom continues referencing his Yorkshire childhood.

Why, then, did he go? “Familiarity – I think I got a bit comfortable being in Liverpool for so long. I was thinking I would get treated the same as I would in Leeds.”

Does he resent the attack? “It was more that I was angry with myself. Angry that I wasn’t more aware to avoid that situation. Now I look at it more as a lesson.”

Wisdom admits that, at the time, he perhaps played the incident down. “I’m quite – and this is not a good thing – numb to incidents like that.”

Wisdom’s words are carefully curated. He is not being dismissive or trying to glamorise what happened: he simply speaks his truth.

“My dad was severely stabbed when I was young. And I’ve had friends who have lost lives to shootings and violence. And so, within my friendship group and family, it wasn’t shocking news. People were concerned, of course, but for me to digest it, I was like, ‘oh yeah, but I’m OK’.”

Thankfully Wisdom avoided life-threatening injuries. But the wounds to his head, chest, buttock and leg were life-altering. He “just wanted to get back to football as quickly as possible,” and pushed himself to return for Derby’s Championship opener that September.

Wisdom started 36 league games that season as the financially stricken club avoided relegation by one point. But his body was not the same. His explosiveness was missing, likewise his recovery powers. During defeat at Preston in April 2021, Wisdom’s groin popped. That remains, the now 30-year-old’s last professional appearance.

“Even though I made the wrong decision to come back that quickly, I think it was the right decision for me in that moment,” he explains asked if he regrets rushing back.

Wisdom is talking to Telegraph Sport from Warrington Town’s Cantilever Park home. He joined the National League North side in September and has just penned a season-long deal.

‘How I grew up was quite old school’

He is articulate, engaging company, and has clearly always known his own mind. Even as a young child, Wisdom pushed to live with his grandmother rather than splitting time between his parents. “That was the best thing for me,” he says. “I had a routine. I like routine. I like schedule. I like to be on time. I like things in place. If I want something, I’ll do everything to get it.

“How I grew up was quite old school. It was ‘do what your elders say’. I had a different outlook. I questioned it. I wasn’t a bad child, but I was one that was going to voice his opinion.

“In a respectful way. Nothing rude. I didn’t kick off – nothing like that. I was very clear. I think I was more observant than anything and my personal approach is ‘practice what you preach’. When I didn’t see that happening, I started to take over my own life.”

It is that inner drive that led to Wisdom scoring on debut for Liverpool as a teenager under Brendan Rodgers in 2012; to captaining England’s U21s; and to eventually sign for Derby for £4.5 million in 2017.

When his Pride Park contract expired in 2021 though, he did not push himself forward for a footballing return. “I always got a phone call, just because of having been in football so long,” he says. Amongst the callers were Birmingham City, Sheffield United and Portsmouth.

“I told them I was nowhere near football fit, and they said, ‘come anyway’. My experience can get me through pre-season games. Respectfully, I can do that in my sleep.

“But the week-in, week-out demands – when you’ve got to play midweek and train every day – would have been difficult for me at that time.”

Instead, Wisdom used MMA, kickboxing and wrestling to return to his fighting weight. He played small-sided games of football simply for the joy of it. Then a conversation with Bohan Dixon – long-time friend and now Warrington team-mate – quickly escalated to a training session. That became a temporary deal. “I didn’t even know what I was signing, which is bad actually! I just wanted to play.”

And now? The initial aches and pains are lessening, and Wisdom’s match fitness is returning. “Every footballer will know what I’m on about,” he says. “Some mask it better, but you get two five minutes periods in every game where you feel like ‘I could be going off here, I’m that tired’. I’m down to about eight minutes of blowing now!”

A vast chasm exists between where Wisdom started and where he is now. While Anfield’s new tier takes the stadium’s capacity to 61,000, Warrington are racing to crowd-fund a demountable 182-seater stand before March 2024. Failure means automatic relegation.

But Wisdom seems happy, both in himself and in his surroundings. You don’t seem to need the trimmings of professional football? “I’d love the trimmings, believe that!” Wisdom responds grinning. “Don’t put that out there…people won’t pay me anything!”

OK, but you aren’t flashy? “Because I started young, I’ve got all of that out of my system now. Playing football for money, or for the life it provides – the notoriety, interviews like this, TV – doesn’t really entice me.”

What does entice Wisdom though, is a natural love for the game. “I don’t need to get back to professional football. Will I love it? A hundred per cent. Will I work hard? Yes. Do I want that? Yes. But I don’t need it.

“I’m happy with where I’m at. That will probably lead me to the things that are meant to be for me. I do it out of love. I don’t need to fulfil anything now.”