Roy Keane talks about infamous 'headbutt' row with Schmeichel in new autobiography

Former Manchester United midfielder and current assistant manager of the Ireland football team Roy Keane has revealed that he headbutted his teammate and ex-goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel and how they had woken Bobby Charlton up with their fight.

Keane launches the second installment of his autobiography this week after his last autobiography proved to be fairly combustible in which the midfielder explained in gory detail his thought process just ahead of that challenge on Alf Inge Haaland.

In light of his bust-up with former United goalkeeper Schmeichel, who was voted World's Best Goalkeeper in 1992 and 1993, Keane said that they had a fight when they were on a pre-season tour of Asia in 1998, just after the midfielder came back from his cruciate injury, The Mirror reported.

Keane said that they were in Hong Kong and there was drink involved. He said that there had been a little bit of tension between them over the years, for football reasons, as Schmeichel would come out shouting at players, and he felt sometimes that the stopper was playing up to the crowd to look at him.

The midfielder said that Schmeichel told him that he has had enough of him and it is time that they sorted this out. He added that he agreed and they had a fight.

Keane said that it felt like 10 minutes and there was a lot of noise, adding that Schmeichel is a big lad. He said that he woke up the next morning and kind of vaguely remembered the fight, adding that his hand was really sore and one of his fingers was bent backwards.

The former United midfielder revealed that the manager had a go at them as they were getting on the bus, and people were going on about a fight in the hotel the night before.

He said that Nicky Butt filled him in on what had happened the night before, as he had refereed the fight. Keane said that Schmeichel had grabbed him and he had head-butted the goalkeeper, adding that they had been fighting for ages.

Keane said that at the press conference, Schmeichel took his sunglasses off and he had a black eye. He added that the first day back at the training ground, the manager pulled himself and Schmeichel into his office.

Keane said that the manager knew exactly where they had fought and told them that they were a disgrace to the club, and that they had woken Charlton up. He said that the manager further told them that Charlton had come out of his room and seen them.

Keane said that Schmeichel took responsibility for the fight, which was good and he admired him for it. But, he added that Charlton could have tried to break it up.