Former Liverpool and England defender Jamie Carragher has been suspended from his role as a Sky Sports pundit for the remainder of the season after spitting at a young Manchester United fan.

Carragher was removed from his usual role on Monday Night Football after video emerged of him spitting towards a United fan from his car.

The 40-year-old had been driving home from working on Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford on Saturday when he was subject to some mild heckling by the occupants of an adjacent vehicle.

He was shown to wind down his window and spit, hitting a 14-year-old girl who was sitting in the passenger seat of the car being driven by her father who was recording with his phone.

Carragher, who has not offered to resign over the incident, apologised to the family and to Sky Sports, calling his behaviour awful and a ‘moment of madness’.

Sky says 40-year-old Carragher, a Sky Sports pundit, will “get the help he needs to guarantee something like this never happens again”.

The former defender has been a regular and popular part of Sky’s Premier League coverage since retiring as a player from Liverpool in 2013, working alongside former Manchester United captain Gary Neville.