Gerry Byrne (born Liverpool, August 29 1938) was a full back famous for playing for Liverpool in the FA Cup final with a broken collarbone.

Byrne suffered the injury at Wembley as early as the third minute but played on throughout the game and the whole of extra-time as Liverpool won the Cup for the first time.

A left full back, Byrne was challenged heftily by Leeds United's Bobby Collins early in the game but, with substitutes still not permitted by the authorities in 1965, he carried on playing. He and his team-mates, not to mention manager Bill Shankly and his coaching team on the Liverpool bench, managed to keep the extent of Byrne's injury a secret from the Leeds United players.

The game went to extra-time and Byrne, despite the pain, kept making his familiar marauding runs down the left flank in joining the attack. Early in the extra period, he reached the line with the ball and pulled back a perfect cross for Roger Hunt to open the scoring. Leeds equalised through Billy Bremner but Ian St. John headed home a winner late in the extra period and Liverpool had won their first ever FA Cup.

The aftermath led to calls again for the Football Association to allow a substitute to be selected by each team in competitive matches. In FA Cup finals over the previous decade, there had been a notable amount of teams reduced to ten men or hampered considerably by hard challenges, spiteful or accidental, from opposition players, including two goalkeepers suffering a broken neck (Bert Trautmann, 1955) and broken cheekbone (Ray Wood, 1957) respectively; two wingers in successive years being stretchered off with broken legs (Roy Dwight, 1959 and Dave Whelan, 1960) and a full back left hobbling for three quarters of the game with a damaged ankle (Len Chalmers, 1961). Byrne's injury was the latest to try to force the FA's hand and, two years later, the first substitutes were allowed in the FA Cup final.

Byrne had joined Liverpool as an amateur, turning professional in 1955 and making his debut in 1957. He won the second division championship with Liverpool in 1962 and, sandwiched by that FA Cup success, he picked up League championship medals in 1964 and 1966. He won two England caps, unluckily vying for the same position as the globally-acclaimed Ray Wilson of Merseyside rivals Everton.

He retired through injury in 1969 and was replaced by Alec Lindsay.