Milner's touching tribute to his late Liverpool teammate Diogo Jota

Ex-Liverpool midfielder James Milner has changed his shirt number at Brighton and Hove Albion (6), taking the number 20 in honour of his former Reds teammate Diogo Jota.

Milner has worn the number six at Brighton since his move from Anfield two years ago, but the 39-year-old has now used the opportunity to pay respects to Jota, who died in a car crash on July 3.

"Once I heard Carlos (Baleba) was looking to change his number and 20 was available, I wanted to do it as a mark of respect and obviously pay tribute to Diogo Jota, who was an amazing player who I was fortunate to play with and a great friend as well," said Milner, who spent three seasons together with Jota at Anfield.

"It is a great honour to wear his number in the Premier League this year."

Milner was among the former Liverpool players to attend Jota's funeral in Porto last month, alongside Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and Thiago.

"As a player, he was incredible. A finisher - so clever with the positions he got into, how he used his body.

"I sit next to Adam Webster on the bus when we travel to [Brighton] games and the amount of times I've said to him, 'you don't realise how good this guy is, this guy is amazing, I love watching him' and Adam would say 'yeah, Milly you told me last week'.

"Every week I love watching the guy as a player and I loved training with him but, more importantly than as a player, as a guy he was incredible. He was someone you could put in any corner of the dressing room and people loved him.

"Me and him had so many fun days together winding each other up. He's such a stubborn guy like myself. We had so much fun together.

"He was such an amazing family man and just someone you wanted to be around. He'll be missed by everyone. He was a truly amazing player and even better guy - an unbelievable guy to be around.

"He'll be missed by everyone who knew him and everyone in the footballing world for sure."