Liverpool legend was found 'safe and well' after reunion absence sparked bizarre online search

It is inevitable for a club with as long and glittering record of success as Liverpool to have almost as many unsung heroes to treasure as sparkling superstars.

Those under-stated characters who quietly went about their business with the minimum of fuss and provided the platform for their greater-heralded colleagues to grab the headlines, glory and adulation.

Each era has thrown up footballers whose work and consistency went largely unnoticed by many and was often only truly appreciated by their fellow team-mates who were able to see at first hand just what they brought to the side.

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From the club’s leading appearance holder Ian Callaghan, whose tally of 857 matches in a red shirt is unlikely to ever be beaten, and Geoff Strong among Bill Shankly’s Sixties stalwarts through to the likes of Ronnie Whelan, Sami Hyypia, Dirk Kuyt and the more recent pairing of Nat Phillips and Rhys Williams whose herculean efforts during the defensive crisis which threatened to wreck Liverpool’s title defence after the long-awaited 2020 Premier League title triumph, unlikely candidates time and again have stepped up and written their names into Anfield folklore.

There is one such example however who inadvertently rose to the kind of prominence that no-one could ever have expected given his steady and unspectacular performances and persona.

Steve Finnan arrived on Merseyside in the same low-key fashion which marked his rise from non-league to International level and caused one of the most talismanic figures of Liverpool’s recent history to fear