Recalled England star Jordan Henderson has forgotten he is not immune to criticism – here’s why the Liverpool hero needs to return to the Three Lions camp with humility, writes IAN HERBERT

Jordan Henderson was handed a shock recall to England’s squad on Friday, with Thomas Tuchel welcoming him back into the fold after a 16-month exile. 

Henderson, 34, left the Three Lions camp under a dark cloud after garnering criticism for joining Saudi Pro League side Al-Ettifaq, having previously established himself as a strong voice against homophobia in football. 

His stint in the Middle East was short-lived, with the Liverpool legend sealing a switch to Dutch giants Ajax less than six months after leaving Anfield for Saudi Arabia. 

The midfielder quickly took the captain’s armband with Ajax but his spell in Amsterdam hasn’t been smooth-sailing. Last month, the 34-year-old was involved in a heated spat with reporters amid claims he refused to play in an effort to secure a January switch to Monaco. 

Mail Sport’s IAN HERBERT believes Henderson’s standing in the modern game has taken a considerable blow since his Merseyside departure, providing a stern reality check for the English veteran.  

It’s hard to believe we’re fast approaching five years since the beginning of those dark Covid days when there was so little ambient light and Jordan Henderson seemed to provide some.

It is just five years since Henderson was lifting Liverpool’s first league title for three decades

This week Henderson launched into a long tirade against football journalists in the Netherlands

We were all grasping for evidence of humanity in football. Henderson put his voice to the Players Together initiative through which, with other captains, he encouraged donations to the NHS and wound up with an MBE.

‘If there’s stuff in the future that might help people, I’m sure we’ll look to do so,’ he said after being named the Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year around that time, little knowing how that future would take him into a PR death spiral.

It descended to another low on Sunday when he embarked on an extraordinary 15-minute press conference confrontation with a polite yet unflinching Ajax press corps in Amsterdam.

The journalists, not unreasonably, wanted to ask him about suggestions – which his employers at Ajax have done nothing to deny – that he had lobbied for a move to Monaco last month.

The exchange was excruciating, with Henderson staring down De Telegraaf’s respected sports writer Mike Verweij during one particularly confrontational exchange in which he claimed that Dutch media reports were upsetting his family.

He insisted that Verweij’s reporting was ‘untrue’, yet was evasive when asked to specify which parts. ‘I’m not giving you details. I’m not here to give you details,’ he moaned.

Someone suggested – without irony – that he should go to the club and say, ‘hey, tell them the true story’, for the sake of his own reputation.

‘No,’ he insisted during this tortuous process, hinting at an irritation with perennial suggestions in the Netherlands that he is paid too much.

Henderson has not been universally welcomed by Ajax, having joined from Saudi’s Al-Ettifaq

The  34-year-old used to be an England stalwart but has been frozen out since last year

Henderson actually does have grounds to defend himself. The inside story of the Monaco affair is that Ajax were receptive to selling him, after a terrible last few seasons in which they have haemorrhaged cash.

One Dutch source tells me: ‘They said to him, “You are our player who earns the most, so would you like to help us?” But they then tried to hide the fact.’

Henderson was receptive to a move to Monaco, with its attractive tax implications, but Ajax’s coach Francesco Farioli insisted that the No 6 – the hinge in his defensively-minded system – must not leave this winter.

Henderson might contend that he has been a commodity for Ajax, who have done nothing to protect him from allegations that he agitated to leave.

All he had to do was provide some sense of this – say what happened – yet his barbs and passive aggression turned that press conference into a PR car crash which has left the Dutch divided in their opinion of a player, for whom Amsterdam was a very useful port in a storm after his lucrative move to Saudi Arabia blew up.

Rafael van de Vaart, now a pundit, has since called Henderson ‘a piece of s***,’ while Het Algemeen Dagblad columnist Sjoerd Mossou extemporised on fakery in his discussion of the former Liverpool captain.

‘Some people are real and other people are fake, but there is an extra layer,’ he wrote. ‘People who play a role to flatter others. The calculators, the actors and the unreliable.’ Ouch.

Some of the commentary is unfair, but Henderson’s high and mighty tone certainly brought it on himself, in a country where views on the standard of his own football are mixed.

‘It’s 50-50. Many say he doesn’t bring that much to Ajax,’ says the source. He certainly did play well in the vital 2-1 win on Sunday over rivals Feyenoord, who they are engaged in a title fight with.

Victimised though he might feel, Henderson’s disastrous and hypocritical move to Saudi in 2023 has been no more forgotten by the Dutch than the British.

Mossou reminded his readers at the weekend of how, ‘in England, Henderson also played the socially involved, ideal son-in-law for years.

‘He presented himself as a loyal enthusiast, a true club player and the empathetic figurehead for LGBTQ rights and the British gay community. Then he went to play football for Al Ettifaq.’

Those who advise the ex-England international would do well to tell him to show some humility

Henderson led Liverpool to the Champions League title in 2019, one of seven trophies he won with the Reds

It feels like a lifetime since the old captain was lifting trophies for Liverpool (pictured in 2020)

Those who advise Henderson – and are presumably being well paid for doing so – might usefully tell him that after the notoriety of that Saudi business, with its terrible optics, a little humility and respect in the public sphere would go a long way to improving his reputation.

He isn’t the only player appointed an MBE in the Covid era whose fortunes have been in a tail spin, of course.

Marcus Rashford’s work on food poverty gave him the structure and purpose he needed in his life and exposed him to positive influences.

Those professing to ‘advise’ him have ensured those influences are shut out. He looks a lost soul now.

Henderson is not lost. A move from the Netherlands, and another big pay-day, seems likely this summer and he will retire a very rich man.

But it’s not too late to appreciate that an MBE and garlands of praise do not immunise you from the scrutiny and questions which come with football’s vast salaries and profile.

It’s been five years since all that. It feels like a lifetime ago.