Roy Keane's reaction when Man Utd players didn't sign charity items sums up his character, it's a rare story

Roy Keane was once so offended by his Manchester United teammates' inability to sign items for charity he went straight to Sir Alex Ferguson to fix it.

The Irishman spent 12 years at Old Trafford and captained the side from 1997 until his departure in 2005, leading by example in every case.

Nothing sums it up more than his reaction to an incident involving the club's charity administrator Wendy Rennison.

"Sometimes you're in a rush, aren't you? You're young, you're a football player, 'Ah Wendy I'll sign them after I'm in a rush, I've got to do my stretching, I've got to have a massage, I've got to have my treatment,' whatever you might say when you're on the way in, a poor excuse or generally you did."

What forced Keane to get involved was when just five of the 23-man squad had signed the match balls for Wendy.

Keane walked past a visibly upset Wendy in the hallway and asked what was wrong.

"Roy walked past Wendy and she was a little upset because only five of 23 players in the squad had signed the balls," Neville continued.

"Roy went upstairs and said to Sir Alex [Ferguson] it's an absolute disgrace this has happened for a couple of weeks now. He killed us. He absolutely killed us. The lack of respect to walk past Wendy, who was there to get the charity balls signed and not sign them for her, for him, was a dereliction of duty and a lack of respect. It's not what you do."

He retired in 2006 after a short spell in the Scottish Premiership with Celtic.

In all, Keane won 17 trophies at Old Trafford. Nine of those came during his stint as captain, making him the most successful captain in United history on the pitch. He was clearly an influence off it too.