Jamie Carragher gave his backing to Graeme Souness after the Liverpool icon confirmed his intent to swim the channel for charity.
The former tough-tackling midfielder left his role at Sky Sports earlier this year and was initially tight-lipped over what he was going to do next. He confirmed that he will now swim the English Channel in an effort to raise money for the Debra charity.
Souness revealed that he was inspired to take on the huge challenge after becoming friends with young Isla Grist, who suffers from a rare skin condition known as Epidermolysis bullosa. The disease causes her skin to blister.
Speaking to the BBC after confirming his challenge in an emotional appearance, he said: "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. And then the parents have to deal with that. And that's why we're doing this.
He added: “This disease is the cruellest. It’s the cruellest and nastiest disease out there that I know. “I’m involved because I’ve got a bit of a profile. I knew nothing about this, I’d never heard of this disease. The vast majority of the people out there watching the show today will know nothing about this disease."
“Please do a little bit of research and see how nasty and awful this is to the sufferers and the impact it can have on their families and if you can get involved, please get involved.”
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The former Scottish international was hailed by Carragher after the news was confirmed. Taking to Twitter replying to a video of Souness, he affectionately wrote: “Souey,” with two hailing emojis, as well as a red heart.
Souness, 70, has already been hard at training ready for his challenge. He has been training with Isla’s dad Andy to prepare.
The pair are aiming to raise £1.1million for the Debra charity that currently supports around 5,000 people around the UK that suffer from the condition.
Speaking about his daughter’s condition, father Andy said: "It's hard for Isla, the blisters she's got all over her body and the raw skin. Up to half her body is not covered in skin. It not only affects the external parts of the skin you can see, it affects the internal linings as well and that's blistering and tearing of the skin inside your throat and the like and it's relentless. It just doesn't stop."
He added: "We are desperately looking to progress research into repurposing drugs and some of the money we'll raise hopefully through the swim is repurposing existing drugs that are licensed to the NHS and seeing if they have therapeutic benefits for EB sufferers.
"It usually takes many many years and billions of pounds to bring a drug to market. These are already licensed."
