Graeme Souness tears up on live TV as he explains next move after sudden Sky Sports exit

The Liverpool legend has called time on his television career to swim the English channel at 70 years of age and struggled to hold back the tears as he explained why

Graeme Souness will swim the English Channel

Graeme Souness has revealed that he has given up appearing in the studio as a Sky Sports pundit to swim the English Channel.

The 70-year-old Liverpool icon featured on Sky for the final time earlier this month, markng an end to his 15-year stint as a regular on the network as a pundit. At the time, he kept his cards close to his chest over what the next chapter would look like for him.

However, the Scotsman has since explained he plans to swim the channel for the charity DEBRA, which supports people living with Epidemolysis Bullosa.

When revealing why he was completing such a task, Souness told BBC Breakfast: “It’s the most horrendous disease. If you’re inflicted by it you must wake up every morning and say why me. It’s a desperate situation.”

The ex-Anfield ace struggled to fight back tears as he continued to discuss the illness and those impacted by it.

“And then the parents have to deal with that. And that’s why we’re doing this,” he said.

BBC breakfast aired a moving segment on Souness’ story and covered how a meeting with a 14-year-old girl back in 2019 who was suffering from Epidermolysis Bullosa inspired him to take on this mammoth challenge.

Graeme Souness will swim the channel to boost awareness for charity DEBRA (

Image:

Sky Sports)

The segment showed how Souness had remained in touch with her, before airing a conversation between the pair to discuess the different ways the degenerative disease has impacted her, including being forced to have plastic surgery on her hands.

Souness’ emotions came to the surface once again when hearing about the pain the disease inflicts on the young girl.

The Scot was known for his no-nonsense approach to punditry but he also let his feelings show when bidding farewell to Sky Sports earlier this month following Liverpool’s 4-3 victory over Tottenham at Anfield.

He told viewers and those present: “I’m going to miss you guys, the guys behind the scenes, our makeup girl, I’ll miss you all.

“You know, for me, I decided that football management wasn’t for me anymore. I had the wrong temperament for it, the wrong personality.

“And then I was given the opportunity to do this and it’s been magnificent. It’s just been the most fantastic time for me, because I love football, I care about football and I worry about it going forward.”

BBC presenter Sally Nugent took to Twitter to inform her followers that they would come away from Souness’ segment feeling “amazed” and “inspired” late on Sunday evening before it was revealed what exactly the Liverpool great would be doing.