Gerrard: I was in the wrong place at the wrong time

Steven Gerrard says the experience of being tried for affray has left him a changed man.

The England and Liverpool midfielder was found not guilty by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court in July following an incident in a Southport nightclub.

The 29-year-old nevertheless admits to harbouring some regrets over the episode and says it has had a profound effect on him.

“The trial has changed me,” he told the Daily Mail.

“I had to learn from it, learn from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. What hour I am out, where I go out...I will be more careful in the future.

“From now on, if we win 5-1, if I score two goals and we go top of the league I won’t try to enjoy it in a bar with my mates any more. I’ll go for a meal and be in my house by 10.30pm. We get paid very well and there have to be sacrifices.

“Throughout the trial I kept telling myself that whatever happened I would never be back in one of those rooms again.

“I regret the situation, I regret not going home when I could have done and I accept that some people will always see this as a blemish on my character, even though I got the outcome I thought I deserved.”