Jamie Carragher was flooded with messages as he shared a special family update. The Liverpool FC legend regularly shares updates from his life away from the pitch on Instagram.
The Sky Sports pundit has taken to the social media platform today to reveal it is his dad, Philly Carragher’s, birthday. He shared a snap alongside his dad and his son, James Carragher, who is a centre back for Wigan Athletic.
Carragher’s son has made his international debut after he was called up for Malta. The 22-year-old has qualified for Maltese citizenship through his nan, Paula Carragher, and great grandad, Paul Vassallo.
Malta will return to action tonight to take on Poland in the UEFA Nations League. Philly has made the trip to Warsaw to catch the game, which gets underway at 7.45pm tonight.
Jamie shared a snap of three generations of his family with his 1.9m Instagram followers, alongside the caption: “There’s no other place on earth he would rather be today than in Poland, watching his Grandson play football.”
People took to the comments to wish Philly well on his birthday. Liverpudlian boxer Paul Smith Jr commented to add: “Happy birthday Philly”
Another user posted: “Good on ya Carra, nice to see three generations in a pic.” Janet said: “Happy birthday Philly have a great day.” Liz posted: “Happy birthday philly.”
James Carragher’s international debut ended in a 1 – 0 defeat to Finland. Jamie Carragher and his wife, Nicola, travelled to Malta to watch the game on Friday night.
Alongside an image of him, James and Nicola, Jamie said: “I’m very proud of [James] on your international debut. Didn’t deserve the loss, son,” alongside a fingers crossed emoji and a red love heart eyes emoji.
James is expected to return back to Wigan Athletic after Malta’s match vs Poland. James has enjoyed an impressive breakthrough season at the Latics after spending time out on loan at Oldham Athletic and Inverness Caledonian Thistle, making 30 appearances across all competitions.
Before joining up with the Malta national team, James had started three successive League One matches for Wigan. And due to international call-ups within their squad, Wigan’s visit to Burton Albion was postponed on Saturday. They are back in action when they host Barnsley at the Brick Community Stadium.
After their 2-1 defeat against Premier League side Fulham last month, Shaun Maloney, who has since been sacked as Wigan’s head coach, praised James. He said: “From a defensive point of view in particular against Fulham he was very good. He’s got a brilliant attribute of really sensing danger.
“I’ve been really happy with him in the last week. I think there’s still lots more to come from Carra. He needs to keep pushing because he’s keeping out Will Aimson at the moment. He’s been excellent for us.”