Young Reds visit Ground Zero
Liverpool's U18 players yesterday undertook an emotional visit to Ground Zero to pay their respects to those who lost their lives in the attacks on the World Trade Centre complex on September 11, 2001.
The players - who are this week competing in the Newark Liberty International Soccer Summit in New Jersey - took time out from their busy football schedule to travel to the scene where 2,606 people died in the towers and on the ground.
In total, 2,996 people lost their lives as a result of the attacks on September 11 and while some of the young Liverpool players present were only four years old at the time, all of them were keen to understand more about what actually happened.
Before leaving their hotel In Newark, the players listened intently to a club presentation about the attacks and how the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 changed the world they've grown up in.
Of those who died on September 11, 67 were British - the largest number from any country outside of America - and the young players were told about two of them with strong Merseyside links - 31-year-old Stephen Morris from the Wirral, who worked for a finance company in the World Trade Centre, and 43-year-old Ron Gilligan, a Liverpool-born Everton fan who is believed to have been sat at his desk on the 103rd floor when one of the planes struck the tower.
The club's staff and players looked for the name plaques of Morris and Gilligan - as well as those of Heswall-born Christopher Jones and Sarah Redheffer, who attended school in Kirby - and placed a shirt signed by the team and a vase of flowers with the message 'You'll Never Walk Alone. Love from the Liverpool Football Club Family' at the foot of the 'Survivor Tree' inside the Memorial Plaza.
Click here to see more pictures from the visit.