John O’Shea on the moments before Roy Keane’s tunnel bust-up with Patrick Vieira and his exit from Man Utd

Ireland coach O’Shea, who was talking on Off The Ball’s live show with former United team-mate Wes Brown and former Liverpool skipper Graeme Souness, gave an insight into how the tunnel row with Arsenal captain Vieira started.

"I was on the bench that night, but the best thing about that was how clever Gary Neville was,” said O’Shea.

"Just before kick-off in the dressingroom, he happens to quietly mention ‘Patrick Vieira’s just pinned me up inside the tunnel saying I’m going to get it tonight after kicking (Antonio) Reyes up in Old Trafford’.

“Next thing, everyone is ‘What happened?!’ Of course, Roy was just stone silent, the brain just going into overdrive.

"He didn’t say a word to anybody and then he walked out and did what he did."

O’Shea and Brown also spoke about Keane’s controversial United exit, with the catalyst being Keane’s analysis of a 4-1 defeat to Middlesbrough on the club’s official television channel MUTV where he criticised the performances of a number of his team-mates.

“The best thing is, if you go back and watch the game against Middlesbrough and just have your own highlights and think about Roy giving a commentary on it, you would get opinions he had,” said O’Shea..

"It was at that time we were struggling a bit in Europe as well and he wanted to make a point.

"Obviously, at the time the club and the manager felt this was just a step too far. But it was something that I heard before.

"Whether it was a couple of years before, or two months before, or two weeks before.

"It was Roy wanting me to be better and wanting the team to be better and wanting to keep certain standards.”

Wes Brown insisted he didn’t find the video “that bad” adding: “Keano would tell you that anyway in training.

"Keano was looking at the game like… if you did that in training and you were on his team, he’d be on you.

"That’s what also made you a better player. At the time, there were a lot of young players there. Maybe for confidence reasons they didn’t want to show it.

"If you ever watch it, it’s not even that bad.”

On the fall-out of the video, O’Shea added: “I think the manager spoke to is in the next couple of days, basically saying ‘Look, I’ve lost my best captain, one of my best ever players, but Manchester United will always be bigger than one player.

"It was as straight forward as that. On the training pitch, I’ll never forget it, he said ‘We have to move on, the club has to move on. Let’s get training.

"It was surreal. Bang! We’re moving on. Let’s go.”