Jordan Henderson, Liverpool’s news captain, admits he is still haunted by memories of their 6-1 capitulation against Stoke City at the end of last season. Brendan Rodgers’ side were routed at the Britannia, finding themselves 5-0 down at half-time as the curtain went down on the 2014-15 campaign and Steven Gerrard’s Liverpool career.

The two clubs meet again at the same venue when the Premier League kicks off again next month and Henderson concedes that the result is still etched in his mind.

“It will be a day that many of us will never forget,” he said. “The way we played, the result, the goals we conceded, everything, it went from bad to worse.

“At half-time in the dressing room, a few of us tried to say some things to get everyone going and get something back. But then full-time came and it was awful. It was a sickening feeling, really. It was embarrassing to go there as a Liverpool player and get beaten like that.”

It was hardly the finale that Henderson and his team-mates had planned for Gerrard, who scored Liverpool’s goal that afternoon, as the 35-year-old captain bade farewell to the only club he had ever played for before his move to LA Galaxy.

Hours after the drubbing the Liverpool players were on a flight to Dubai in a trip planned as a send-off for their long-serving midfielder. But Henderson revealed many of Rodgers’ squad felt uneasy about boarding the plane given the manner of their thrashing earlier that day.

“A lot of us didn’t want to go to be honest,” added Henderson, who assumed the armband from his former midfield colleague this summer. “It had been organised for a number of months and it was especially for Stevie.

“He has been such a huge role model for everyone who has been here and we’d wanted to make sure that we said goodbye to him properly off the field on a more personal level for him. If it was just a holiday, we wouldn’t have gone. That is natural when that happens. It stays with you but then there comes a point when you have to move on.

“I won’t forget that day in a hurry. That game will stick in my mind for a long time.”