Keane admits to brawl with Schmeichel in new book

Former United skipper also tells of acrimonious split with club

Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane has revealed he once left teammate Peter Schmeichel with a black eye following a preseason brawl, in extracts from his autobiography released on Monday.

In the book, The Second Half, which will be published on Thursday, the former Ireland midfielder also lifts the lid on his acrimonious departure from United in 2005.

Keane reveals the alcohol-fueled fight with former Denmark international Schmeichel, one of United's greatest goalkeepers, occurred during a preseason trip to Hong Kong in 1998.

"There'd been a little bit of tension between us over the years, for football reasons," wrote Keane, in an excerpt from the book published on the website of British newspaper the Daily Mirror.

"Peter would come out shouting at players and I felt sometimes he was playing up to the crowd: 'Look at me!'.

"He was probably doing it for concentration levels but I felt he did it too often, as if he was telling the crowd: 'Look what I have to deal with'.

"He said, 'I've had enough of you. It's time we sorted this out'. So I said, 'OK,' and we had a fight. It felt like 10 minutes. There was a lot of noise - Peter's a big lad.

"I woke up the next morning. I kind of vaguely remembered the fight. My hand was really sore and one of my fingers was bent backwards.

"Butty (Nicky Butt) had refereed the fight. Anyway, Peter had grabbed me, I'd head-butted him - we'd been fighting for ages."

According to Keane, Schmeichel explained away his black eye at a subsequent media conference by claiming one of his teammates had accidentally elbowed him in training.

Keane left United in November 2005 after launching a withering attack on some of his teammates during an interview with United's in-house television channel, MUTV, that was never broadcast.

In his book, he says he learnt of United's desire for him to leave during a subsequent meeting with then manager Alex Ferguson.

"I said to Ferguson, 'Can I play for somebody else?'" writes Keane, who is now working as an assistant coach for Aston Villa and the Irish national team.

"And he said, 'Yeah you can, because we're tearing up your contract'. So I thought, 'All right - I'll get fixed up'.

"I knew there'd be clubs in for me when the news got out. I said, 'Yeah, I think we have come to the end'."

Keane, who eventually joined Celtic before retiring in June 2006, later returned to United to say sorry to Ferguson and his assistant Carlos Queiroz for that infamous MUTV interview but he now says he regrets the apology.

"Now I kind of wish I hadn't (apologized). Afterwards I was thinking, 'I'm not sure why I f****** apologized.' I just wanted to do the right thing," Keane writes.

Keane believes the real reason for his exit was an earlier bust-up with Ferguson and Queiroz, who had accused the midfielder of a lack of loyalty.

"I said, 'Don't you f****** talk to me about loyalty, Carlos. You left this club after 12 months a few years ago for the Real Madrid job. Don't you dare question my loyalty," Keane writes.

Keane then turned his focus on Ferguson after he stepped in to stop the row.

"You as well gaffer. We need f****** more from you," Keane claims he said. "We need a bit more, gaffer. We're slipping behind other teams."

Keane spent 12 years at United, eight as captain, and won seven Premier League titles, four FA Cups and the 1999 Champions League.