Sunderland AFC news: Jordan Henderson admits attending Newcastle United games before making Magpies dig

The homegrown midfielder made 79 appearances for Sunderland before being sold to Liverpool for an undisclosed fee thought to be between £16million and £20million.

Since then, the 32-year-old has won the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, Club World Cup, European Super Cup and Carabao Cup during a glittering 11-and-a-half seasons at Anfield.

In his new book, Henderson details his childhood and early days as a Sunderland fan at length and also talks about how he was taken to some Newcastle United games by his stepfather following his mother, Liz, and father Brian’s divorce.

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"After the split, my dad moved out to Washington, five miles away. I stayed with my mam, Liz, who is a fitness instructor in Summerhill, and saw my dad every other weekend.

“A year or so later, my mam met a guy called Peter Conway; eventually he came and lived with us. Peter is a good man and treated me like his own son.

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"He used to take me to watch Newcastle matches but I only went with him to watch the opposition! Peter and my mam had a baby, my sister, Jodi, and he would take me to training whenever my dad couldn’t do it. Things worked out!”

Henderson is part of Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the World Cup in Qatar. The Three Lions won their group opener 6-2 against Iran on Monday evening with the midfielder named on the bench for the clash.