Wayne Rooney has admitted he "would have hit" Jonathan Ross a decade ago after the television presenter made comments about his mum and dad.
Ross is alleged to have mocked an image of the Manchester United legend and parents on the beach during a holiday in Cancun, Mexico in 2003.
The broadcaster has made several comments about Rooney since he scored a wonder goal against Arsenal on his Premier League debut for Everton in October 2002.
The Derby County manager has been in the public eye for nearly two decades, becoming England's record scorer and winning countless trophies, including the Champions League.
Rooney understands he will always be talked about due to his fame but believes it was unfair for Ross to make fun of his parents, who've stayed away form the spotlight.
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"That's the one thing that really p***ed me off," the ex-England skipper told the Daily Mail. "Still, to this day, if I saw Jonathan Ross, I would speak to him and ask him why.
"10 years ago, I wouldn't have spoken to him. I would have hit him.
"If you are having a go at me, no problem. I'm in the public eye. I get it. But not my parents. I felt that was really unfair."
Rooney has previously admitted his dislike of Ross, asking boxing promoter Eddie Hearn to arrange a pay-per-view scrap between him and the TV star in the ring.
"Get me a fight with Jonathan Ross," joked the retired footballer in 2019. "I just want to get into a ring with him."
Rooney does have some experience with the gloves. He was decked by his friend and former United defender Phil Bardsley in 2015.
A video of the innocent scrap - filmed on a phone in a kitchen - was leaked to the press.
"When it was coming out, I went to see [then United manager Louis] van Gaal," revealed Rooney in 2019.
"I said, 'This story's coming out about me and Phil Bardsley fighting in the house.' And he p***ed himself laughing. He found it hilarious."
Rooney added: "On the night with Bardo, we’d been out. After that, we went home and put the gloves on. We do it quite regularly. We've done worse but that got out.
"The video stops when I get knocked down – but I actually get up and we carry on fighting. When we finished, the two of us were just sat there.
"My nose had gone and Bardo’s got blood pouring out of his mouth."
Speaking about the famous fight to United's website in November, Bardsley said: "He’s throwing a few bombs and obviously he’s a big lad, isn’t he? Strong.
"We’re exchanging blows - the Crocky [Croxteth] kid and the Salford kid, there’s no holding back!
"He just walked into a jab. He was only out for a couple of seconds but we were all panicking - what’s going on here?
"We didn’t know what to do, panic stations and we had no phone signal. “We were all thinking, 'If he doesn’t open his eyes, we can’t phone an ambulance, there’s no signal.'
"So much panic! Anyway, he comes around... I thought nothing of it to be honest, but I think one of the lads naively video'd it and sent it to his mate.
"Before you know it, it gets out of control and people are having a nice holiday off a sparring contest between me and Wazza."
