Roy Keane shows no mercy when recalling horror tackle on Alf-Inge Haaland | OneFootball

Roy Keane is a man who is known to speak his mind on any given topic - although mainly restricted to football - and the former Manchester United man wasn't shy about once again giving his thoughts on his tackle on Alf-Inge Haaland during a Manchester derby in 2001.

The Irishman was representing Manchester United, while Haaland was playing for City on the day. The bout at Old Trafford was where a long-standing rivalry between the pair came to the fore. The beginning of the aforementioned rivalry began with an injury Keane sustained four years earlier against Leeds United, whom Haaland was playing for at the time. The father of current Man City superstar - Erling Haaland - stood over his opponent and accused him of faking an injury, but it turned out that Keane had ruptured his cruciate ligament.

The injury put an end to his season, but Keane never forgot that fateful day at Elland Road. Fast-forward to April 2001, and he got his revenge at Old Trafford with a knee-high challenge on his opposing midfielder, before taking the chance to stand over Haaland in a reversal of the roles from 1997.

The Man City man was never able to recover fully from this incident and would only appear four more times as a substitute before being forced into retirement at the age of 30. It's safe to say Keane doesn't feel too much remorse about the order even to this day.

Roy Keane defends his tackle on Alf-Inge Haaland

Speaking on the popular show 'Stick to Football' on Gary Neville's YouTube channel, The Overlap, the 52-year-old was being questioned about all the red cards he had been shown throughout his career, with Neville reading the charges. Of course, the straight red card Keane was shown for the challenge on Haaland came up in the conversation.

Initially deflecting the blame towards Neville - who also played in that game - Keane joked: "You didn't help either, running off to the linesman saying it's only a yellow. If you go over to an official and say it is only a yellow, they're going to go 'Well, that must be a red!"

Once the laughter at the former right-back had died down, the former Red Devils captain claimed: "I don't think that tackle was even that bad. I know it looks bad when a player does a somersault. I was never going to injure him with that tackle. You can't injure a player with that tackle."

As previously mentioned, Haaland wouldn't be the same player after that day, but it doesn't look like Keane is going to admit to any wrongdoing on his part.

He was a feisty character during his playing days and, while he still maintains a certain presence when on television, he was not to be messed with by opposition players. Keane was sent off on 13 different occasions, which is the most of any player in English football history with seven coming in the Premier League.

Neville went through each red card his former teammate had been shown, and the Irishman tried his best to defend his actions. One of the more entertaining comments was surrounding current England boss - Gareth Southgate. When asked if he had really stamped on Southgate, Keane simply replied: "Yeah. And he deserved it," which sent everyone on the panel - and particularly Ian Wright - into hysterics.