Gary Pallister recalls feud with former Man United captain Roy Keane

Pallister and Keane fell out during their last year at United together. Credit: PA

Gary Pallister has revealed he and team-mate Roy Keane did not speak during the defender's final year at Manchester United following a pre-season bust-up.

However, he admits their difference of opinion could have been resolved long before it eventually was if the two men had not been so stubborn.

Pallister and Keane formed part of the bedrock upon which Sir Alex Ferguson's all-conquering United dynasty was built, but as his time at Old Trafford drew to a close - he returned to first club Middlesbrough in July 1998 - Pallister was at loggerheads with the combustible Irishman.

He said: "We just had a fall out on a pre-season tour. We ended up not speaking. It was weird. It wasn't like we hated each other. We were just both stubborn enough not to say, 'Here...'. We should have both put our hands out after that and got on with it.

"We laughed about it at the time, but we just wouldn't be the one to say, 'Let's forget about this'. That's how stubborn we were.

"But when I left to go to Middlesbrough, I went to get my stuff out of the dressing rooms at The Cliff and Roy was walking up the stairs as I was walking down. He started laughing, I started laughing.

"We shook hands and he said, 'I wish you all the best, big man' and we started talking again after that. Something as daft as that, two people being stubborn."