Former Liverpool defender Andre Wisdom has not played professionally in over two years, and he has revealed that he has ‘not been the same’ since being stabbed in 2020
Wisdom came through Liverpool’s youth system and went on to play 22 games for the club between 2012 and 2013, before leaving on four loan spells and eventually settling at Derby.
Wisdom, now 29, is without a club and played his final senior minutes for the Rams in April 2021 – but his story is compelling.
After being stabbed in the head and the back while leaving a party, his career and life were thrown into a different direction.
Wisdom revealed to the Beautiful Game Podcast that he did not realize he had been stabbed at first, and that after being treated, his “body just wasn’t the same.”
“I was in a place where I shouldn’t have been – at a party,” Wisdom explained. “But I think because it was lockdown at the time, I was a little eager to get out there.”
“It was a house party, and as I was leaving, there were like five guys with balaclavas and knives who said, ‘give me your watch.'”
“I said ‘no,’ and what happened next was that we started fighting, and that was the end of it.” I drove home after the incident and discovered I’d been stabbed multiple times.
“They’ve fled, I’m covered in blood in the street, and I’m just like ‘f*** sake,’ so I went home and dialed 911 from my house.”
“It was frustrating because when I got out of the hospital after two or three days, I had a couple of operations, and it felt like my body wasn’t the same.”
“I tried to get back into football, and it wasn’t the same, I wasn’t getting the same output of power or speed.”
The challenges continued to come for Wisdom throughout his recovery, but his attitude toward it all has been as positive as one can be, with the words “this is life, and things happen.”
“My left [buttock] is worse than my right,” Wisdom explained, “severe nerve damage on my left side.” “It was difficult to bear. That brings up a slew of other issues, as everything is interconnected.
“I was stabbed in the head, and I have headaches.” I couldn’t breathe when I got out of the hospital because I had fluid on my lungs, so I had a small cut here [points to his chest].
“I believe I rushed back to football because it was all I knew.” I returned to football as soon as I could walk, which took two to three weeks. We men tend to get ahead of ourselves.
“It grew and I played two games.” “I knew I wasn’t right, but my ego wouldn’t let me accept it.”
Wisdom is currently investing in real estate and has a relationship with Liverpool to help house their young players.
“I’ve always thought about what to do with my money, and yeah, I got into property,” he said.
“I rent some houses to Liverpool [the club], and they put some of the young players in there when they come from different clubs.”
Leave a Reply