Jamie Carragher and Piers Morgan have traded insults on social media after the latter took exception to being labelled 'embarrassing' over his vocal support of Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ronaldo had been one of the talking points of the international break after the Portugal veteran walked out of the Portugal camp following a rift with manager Jorge Jesus.

While Ronaldo has apologised for storming out of the camp, his behaviour has been defended by Morgan and Rio Ferdinand – who are both friends with the Al-Nassr striker. 

Morgan called Jesus, 'the Ten Hag of international football', while Ferdinand said the treatment of his former Man United team-mate was 'inappropriate', claiming the manager 'thought he was Sir Alex Ferguson or Pep Guardiola'. 

Speaking on the Overlap Daily on Friday, Carragher claimed their closeness to the star was problematic when analysing the situation and suggested they were 'embarrassing themselves'. 

'People think it’s good to be close to people in the game, but this is where it becomes a problem,' Carragher said.

'People like Piers Morgan and Rio Ferdinand, who are big people in the media whether you like them or not, are embarrassing themselves with the nonsense that they’re coming out with because they know Ronaldo.

'You can know someone and try to look after them, but you cannot defend the indefensible.'

Morgan responded on social media on Saturday, with the broadcaster and Carragher dragging up historical incidents as they traded insults.

Morgan referenced Carragher and his Liverpool team-mates wearing shirts in support of Luis Suarez during the warm-up before a game in 2011, after the Uruguayan was banned for racially abusing Patrice Evra in 2011.

'So, @Carra23 dislikes me (and @rioferdy5) sticking up for our friend @Cristiano, or as he puts it "defending the indefensible". Here is the same Jamie Carragher supporting his friend Luis Suarez after he racially abused Patrice Evra.'

Carragher responded: 'We as a team did support our teammate and we were wrong. I apologised to Patrice on tv years ago, which then prompted Liverpool to send him a letter also apologising which was the right thing to do. 

'Your reaction to my slight criticism saying you & Rio are in bed with Ronaldo so it clouds your judgement when speaking about him is embarrassing. You batter people every day, when it’s the other way you storm out of a tv studio or get personal. All to get another interview you sycophant.'

The Liverpool legend then added a photo of a Daily Mail column written by Morgan back in 2008 headlined 'Ronaldo is a spoiled brat, why cheer him?', with Carragher commenting 'What an absolute phoney you are.'

The exchange continued with Morgan posting 'But when it comes to ‘defending the indefensible’, I do admit I have sometimes done that @Carra23.'

The post referenced Morgan's defence of Carragher in 2018, where the broadcaster called for the pundit to keep his job at Sky Sports after he was filmed spitting towards a car after being goaded by a fan while a 14-year-old girl was in the passenger seat. 

The ex-England international was suspended by Sky Sports for the remainder of that season over the incident but kept his job. 

Carragher, who reflected in 2021 over his embarrassment over the incident, claimed he questioned Morgan's initial support after being asked to be interviewed by the broadcaster. 

'Yes I remember, I contacted you to say I appreciated your support, you then tried to get me on your tv show to talk about it, so my appreciation waned a bit as I knew it wasn’t as sincere as I first thought,' Carragher wrote.

'It was all about an interview, as is your possessive fawning over Ronaldo & [Donald] Trump. I also wouldn’t be getting personal with your history or the other two you’re defending, now that would be defending the indefensible.'

The discussion could continue with Morgan having earlier posted in response to Carragher's comments about Ronaldo by promoting his upcoming talk show, writing 'I’ll deal with Mr Carragher on Monday’s Football Uncensored…'