Keane admits he would never apologise for horror tackle on Haaland

Roy Keane has opened up on the horror challenge he put in on Erling Haaland's father Alf-Inge during their time as midfield rivals in the Manchester derby.

In April 2001, United captain Keane lined up against Haaland in the blue of Man City, and left his opponent flat out on the turf following a high challenge at the knee. It was one which would ultimately curtail Haaland's career in the years that followed.

Now, over 20 years on,  Keane has opened up on the incident during a drive with his fellow Sky Sports pundit Micah Richards.

The duo have been making trips together in the car to the national stadium, as part of SkyBet's Road to Wembley segment in preparation for Euro 2020.

And Richards took the opportunity to ask the renowned hard man Keane if he had any regrets from the actions taken during his playing days.

'Can I tell you something, I have never regretted anything I have done on a football pitch, never,' Keane replied with conviction.

'I've been sent off and I've let my team down.'

When prompted by Richards on the infamous incident with Haaland, Keane began to offer his reasoning.

'To me I was in the battle with people, I was in the middle of the park.'

Richards outlined that Keane did not mean to hurt the Norwegian, to which the former United man agreed and insisted it was a case of hurting Haaland, but not injuring him.

'No, no of course,' said Keane, before further elaborating: 'Did I go to hurt players? Of course I did.

'I'd never apologise for that. And people went to hurt me.

'I never, ever went out to injure a player in my life, [but] did I go out to hurt players? Course.

'When you go for a ball in the middle of the park there's a good chance that somebody is going to get hurt.'

Soon realising he was opening up to Richards more than he intended to, Keane set his fellow passage off in a fit of hysterics by observing: 'This is like my shrink.

'Getting all these things off my chest.'

Alf-Inge Haaland is now better known around the world as father of Borussia Dortmund superstar Erling, who is one of the most wanted footballers on the planet right now.

In the years that followed after the injury, Alf-Inge spoke out the incident only sparingly and has refused to get into a public spat with his old rival over something that is now way in the past.

In 2008, Alf-Inge told Sportsmail: 'The worst thing about what he did and what he wrote in his book is the example that it set to young kids who follow big-name players like him. They see these things and they think it's okay.

'I played in central midfield, I had run-ins with people every week, but at the end of the game you shake hands and the problems stay on the field. That is what should have happened between me and him