Graeme Souness has explained the moment that turned him into an atheist

Former Sky Sports pundit Graeme Souness has described the meeting with a child, around five years ago, that made him decide to be an atheist.

Souness decided to hang up his...what do pundits hang up when they're retiring? Microphones?...

Last week, following Liverpool's win over Tottenham Hotspur, Souness announced on Sky Sports that he was hanging up his microphone.

After 15 years with the Premier League's main broadcaster, the former Liverpool midfielder decided that he was calling it a day, at least with them.

Of course, in typical fashion for the former pundit, it took him just a couple of days to cause controversy, as he spoke to Simon Jordan and insulted former colleague Gary Neville.

Souness has, at best, split opinion, with many considering the 70-year-old to be somewhat of a dinosaur, when it comes to many of his football views.

Indeed, even on his final game on duty with Sky, the former Southampton manager was discussing Spurs' need for a British manager.

However, away from the cameras, the Scotsman definitely has a nice side, and does plenty of work with charity, and he is a campaigner for people with Epidermolysis Bullosa, EB, after learning about the disease about five years ago.

And he's explained how meeting people with the disease changed his mind on god. "I wasn’t aware of the disease until five years ago and it’s the most evil and cruellest of all diseases," Souness said on Jordan's Up Front podcast.

"It just robs these young people of any quality of life. It’s life-limiting for these poor children and it’s not just the sufferers but also the families that have to deal with it which is traumatic to say the least.

“And it has changed me as a human being. I am now an atheist because I cannot believe there is an almighty that would allow this to happen to one person.”

Souness working for Sky. Image: Alamy

EB is an incurable skin disease that causes painful blisters and also means the skin tears from any trauma or friction, making it debilitating.

The former midfielder has helped charity DEBRA, which he is now vice-president for, raise more than £500,000 to help support the sufferers and their families.

Around 5,000 in the UK suffer from EB, also known as butterfly skin, with 500,000 worldwide sufferers.

Souness has become close to 14-year-old sufferer Isla Grist during his work for DEBRA, and explained the affect the disease has had on her.

"My little girl, she’s not my little girl but I’ve become very close to her, Isla, and it’s like someone has taken a torch to their skin," he told Jordan.

"It’s continually raw in their mouths and there’s not a moment of the day when she’s not in pain.

"Do you remember when you have burned the end of your finger with a little bit of hot water and you think it’s the sorest thing that could possibly happen? Imagine your whole body being covered in that.

"It’s red raw and they lose their skin.

"These kids have to take the strongest of drugs to get through their lives like Ketamine, Diamorphine and it’s just the most painful, cruellest, worst thing you could experience as a human being."