Jamie Carragher has revealed Luis Suarez initially denied he bit Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic to his Liverpool teammates back in April 2013.
The incident occurred during a 2-2 draw with the Blues at Anfield - during which Suarez scored a dramatic late equaliser - as the pair got involved in an off the ball altercation which saw both players hit the deck.
Carragher recalls that, after returning to the dressing room, the former Reds striker refuted the biting claims that eventually saw the Uruguayan receive a ten-match ban from the FA in 2013.
As a result, Suarez's ban extended into the 2013/14 season. Nevertheless, he would finish that campaign with a league-high 31 goals.
But back to the biting! Even though multiple cameras caught Suarez sinking his teeth into Ivanovic's arm, the current Barcelona centre forward protested his innocence in the Liverpool dressing room after the full-time whistle.
And, as reported by Metro, Suarez's former Liverpool teammate Carragher told Sky Sports: "When he came in the dressing room - Luis actually denied it at first! Maybe he hoped the cameras hadn't picked it up."
Carragher continued: "But I actually think it had a massive effect on Liverpool next season. That was the season Liverpool almost won the title, Suarez was the best player in the league."
"But there were two games Liverpool dropped points in, at home to Southampton they lost 1-0 and they drew away at Swansea, so there were five points dropped in the first few games and Luis Suarez didn't play.
"The form he was in that season, you'd have to say there was a good chance that you think he would have turned one of those games. So that act and the ban that he got actually affected Liverpool much more the next season. There wasn't too much riding on [the previous] season."
Regarding the actual biting, he added: "Well he'd actually done it before, at Ajax I think before he came. Something happened at the World Cup, so that's something where he obviously gets frustrated."
It appeared to Carragher that the events at the 2014 World Cup, where Suarez bit Italy's Giorgio Chiellini during a group stage game, led Liverpool to cash in on their star player, adding: "I think he wanted to go anyway to Barcelona at that stage."
That he did - he got his dream £75m move to the Catalans later that summer.
However, Suarez's former teammate explained: "I've played alongside him and at that time you come out and defend your players. You know it's wrong, of course you do, but you come out and you defend your player and you try to stick together as a club and support him.
"Even coming up against a former club in Liverpool last season in the Champions League, he wasn't too worried about the Kop giving him stick and maybe trying to get Andy Robertson sent off and antagonising Liverpool players.
"Even though I was wound up watching it, in some ways I admired it as well because that's what made him such a special player. He was a win-at-all-costs man."
Source : 90min