Paul Scholes will go down in history as a Manchester United legend, with countless trophies to his name and a memorable return from retirement, but things could have gone very differently after the midfielder refused to play in a game.
Back in the 2001/02 season, United found themselves in the unusual position of playing two games in as many days, with a league meeting with Liverpool followed by a League Cup clash with Arsenal. Scholes was benched for the first game, making a late cameo, in place of David Beckham, but Sir Alex Ferguson had planned to use the midfielder in a rotated XI for the trip to Highbury.
Scholes, however, took the unusual decision of telling the Scotsman that he wouldn't play in north London. United's XI at Highbury was undoubtedly a weakened one, with Danny Webber and Michael Stewart among several academy talents in the starting line-up. But Scholes wasn't involved after taking matters into his own hands.
"I was p****d off of being left out in the first place, I did some stupid things when I was younger," he told The Overlap. "He left me out on the Sunday and I was p****d off.
"Most of the times when I was left out I knew the reason why, like I didn't play well the week before. So, I could take that and I was fine. Some players can't take it whether they've played badly or not.
"But I was just really p****d off he didn't play me in that game. We were getting beat and weren't playing very well and at half-time I thought he was going to bring me on, but he didn't.
"I was wound up right from the start of the game anyway, my head was gone. I felt like he was doing it on purpose, 'I'm not bringing him on because I'm going to play him tomorrow'."
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Scholes recovered from that moment, helping United to numerous other major honours, but, at the time, he doubted whether he would be wearing a Red Devils shirt again. He also opened up about the moment where he told Ferguson he wasn't available.
He added: "At that time, it was a League Cup game and you would normally play the reserves, don't you? I felt he was doing that, and he was doing it on purpose, but my head was gone. He was leaving it and leaving it, but I went home gone and still fuming.
"We were meeting at Stockport that night at the train station. I actually drove to the train station and told him I wasn't going. It was crazy, stupid, but my head had gone. After that game, it was an international break, so it went on and on, and on.
"It didn't carry on but he fined me a weeks' wages. There was no contact because I was with England, so I had to wait 10 days before I spoke to him. He didn't get mad but he just fined me two weeks' wages. I apologised but I didn't think I would survive after that to be honest. I thought I would be gone, yes."
