Liverpool star who missed Champions League final watched parade on Sky Sports

Liverpool's miraculous 2005 Champions League final triumph will forever be remembered fondly by fans – but not by one of the players.

Stephen Warnock had been a squad player under Rafa Benitez that season, making 19 Premier League appearances and four in Europe. He'd not missed a matchday squad throughout the campaign to Istanbul.

So he was expecting to be involved again, either on the bench or in the starting XI. Benitez announced the 18 players who would be in the lead up to the match, and Warnock was elated to see his name on the list.

But he described what followed as "an absolute disgrace", with assistant manager Pako Ayestaran calling him to explain there'd been a mistake and he in fact wasn't included. By that point the left-back had told his family to book their flights to Turkey.

So it was very much a case of mixed emotions for him as he watched on in the stands as his team-mates pulled off the remarkable comeback from 3-0 down before triumphing on penalties.

"It was hard for me because I'm a Liverpool fan, I grew up on the Kop and everything. I thought 'I f***ing hate this team, like what's going on here'. I was fuming, I was so angry," he recalled on the Undr The Cosh podcast.

"I didn't hate the team, I hated Rafa. I sat there thinking 'I'm so happy for the lads, but I'm also p***ed off with the way things have played out'. If you ever played in a final or you've not played in one, you don't feel part of even if you've played your part to get it."

It only got worse for Warnock when another late change meant he couldn't make the trophy parade back on Merseyside, instead having to watch the jubilant celebrations from afar on TV.

He continued: "I remember that night just going to bed and they said 'right, the plane