Roy Keane says he was once banned from Manchester United's Christmas party, he went out by himself

Roy Keane says he was once banned from a Christmas party during his time at Manchester United but ended up going out by himself after Sir Alex Ferguson threatened to dish out fines.

The former United captain, who made 480 appearances under Ferguson, opened up on the story in the latest episode of the Stick to Football podcast with Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher Ian Wright and Jill Scott.

“I got banned from the Manchester United Christmas party one year," he said. "I must’ve been injured, and the reserve team were having a night out and I went out with them and I think there was a bit of bother in Manchester.

“The first team lads were going out a couple days later and Sir Alex Ferguson came in, in front of everyone, and said that if anyone was seen drinking with me that day, they would get fined.

"The players were worried about getting fined by the manager, so I ended up going out by myself – I had a Christmas party by myself.”

Keane recalled being injured ahead of the party but a report from the Daily Star suggests the former Republic of Ireland international was involved in an altercation with a barman.

Ferguson would then berate Keane in front of his team-mates the following day.

In the most recent podcast episode on The Overlap's YouTube channel, brought to you by Sky Bet, Keane's former teammate Gary Neville also opened up on an incident at Christmas.

But rather than a story involving his old boss, Neville admitted he "thought he was going to die" after believing he had his drink spiked.

“I ended up in hospital one Christmas, I thought I was going to die. Someone spiked my drink; I don’t know what with, but it was bad," Neville said.

Image credit: Getty

"I was with David Beckham and Ben Thornley put me in a taxi and he sent me home, but I said to the taxi driver to take me to the hospital.

"I got to the hospital, and it was quite busy, and I ended up falling asleep on the deck, and I remember one of the nurses coming over to me asking if it was just drunk, which I said it was, and only then I realised that I could have been spiked.

“I ended up sleeping at the hospital, waking up about two hours later and you didn’t have mobile phones back then and I was 18, so I ended up using the hospital phone to ring up my girlfriend to come and pick me up.

"I remember she picked up and I was sat in a wheelchair at the front of the hospital."