Evra reveals how Man United stars turned on Nani despite horror Carragher tackle

Patrice Evra has recalled how Sir Alex Ferguson and Paul Scholes were left frustrated by Nani during a Manchester United game at Liverpool, despite him suffering a horror challenge by Jamie Carragher.

The infamous tackle occurred during a Premier League at Anfield, which the Reds won 3-1, and saw Carragher booked following a first half lunge at the Portuguese winger.

The studs up challenge left a huge gaping wound on Nani's shin and led to his substitution at the end of the half as he was carried off on a stretcher.

Yet Evra, who was among the United stars playing, recalled how after initially going over to defend Nani by confronting Carragher, team-mates soon became uninterested when they saw Nani was left crying over the incident.

Speaking to former United team-mate Rio Ferdinand, who was not among the Red Devils players that afternoon, Evra recalled the incident also left Ferguson giving Nani time away from the club.

'You remember Anfield when Nani got tackled by Jamie Carragher?', Evra quizzed the ex-England defender on his podcast FIVE.

'I remember he got butchered he nearly broke his leg. We started fighting with Liverpool players, Steven Gerrard, and then Scholsey [Paul Scholes] came and he saw Nani crying. He said "f*** that, let's go".

'After that Ferguson gave him two weeks off because he says he needed to recover from that because we were waiting for him because in that team we didn't care we were ready to kill him.

'Because you know someone crying at Anfield... and even Ferguson, you remember when he said: "I hope your legs are f*****g broken I really hope your legs are broken".

'Ferguson always wanted to kill Nani when he was falling on the floor, saying you can't be a United player and doing that.'

Ferdinand elaborated on Evra's point, insisting the message was a Manchester United player was not allowed to show any weakness at Anfield, as it would only give the Reds encouragement to perform, before comparing how a similar mindset led to the 7-0 rout United suffered at Liverpool on Sunday.

'We [United] all run over because it was such a bad tackle and everyones's pushing. Scholesy came and looked at Nani and saw him crying and said "nah", and walked off, just walked off. He said he "can't defend that".

'What Pat is saying is you can't show any form of weakness at Anfield and that's what happened [Sunday].'

Despite United's annoyance with Nani, Carragher has since admitted he couldn't sleep after making the challenge due to feeling terrible over the incident.

Carragher said he was trying to channel his aggression but 'panicked' in the moment.

'My thought process was skewed and I got it badly wrong, mistiming my tackle in a way which looked awful. I felt terrible when I watched it back', he wrote in the Telegraph back in 2020.

'I could not sleep that night, my mind preoccupied with the horrendous tackle and the public response to it.

'It appalled me to think my reputation might be sullied by one incident after the hundreds of robust but fair tackles in my career.

'I was relieved Nani was not seriously hurt, because I have never met a player who wants the thought of damaging a fellow professional’s career on their conscience.'