Manchester United icon Gary Neville has revealed that Roy Keane’s warning to him about health and stress has “hit home”. The Sky Sports pundit recently made his Dragon’s Den debut and operates several businesses away from football, but has been told that he is spreading himself too thin.
Outside of Neville’s duties for the broadcaster he owns League Two team Salford, the UA92 University in Manchester and several hotels and properties in the Greater Manchester area. After his first episode on the BBC show Dragon’s Den aired he began complaining about a rash on his eye that had developed in recent weeks.
Speaking on their Stick to Football podcast, Keane urged Neville to take some time off from work and that stress was the cause of his rash. “I know what it is. It’s stress 100 per cent, you’re working too hard. Gary, you are working too hard,” Keane told him.
“Your body is telling you something… you always have something. A cold, a rash… Gary, listen to this. I swear, slow down. You’ve got a wife and children, all the money in the bank. What are you doing?”
To which ex-Arsenal striker Ian Wright added: “What are you doing? It’s coming out because your body is saying, ‘I’ve got to get this out, I don’t feel right.”
Neville collapsed and was rushed to hospital during England’s Euro 2020 win over Germany, following “a fit” when Raheem Sterling scored the opening goal. He was warned that his hectic lifestyle was the cause of the issue and Neville has since reflected on the advice that Keane gave him.
On LinkedIn, Neville wrote: “Last week was a bit of a whirlwind being on Dragons Den, but in the midst of that there was a clip that came out of Roy Keane on Stick To Football telling me to slow down and what he said has been on my mind for a few days.
“Last year I spoke about the Brian Kidd philosophy I’d learned at United of ‘Make your pace early, you can’t make it up at the end’, my motto being ‘Attack The Day’ and my company being called Relentless.
“People tell you to go for it and people tell you to slow down and take your time and you end up having these conflicting messages in your mind where you’re looking for balance. Because I have great respect for Roy and I don’t think he would have said it if he didn’t genuinely feel it, it did hit home how that balance is important.
“That idea between work ethic, work ethos and hard work being the most important thing for me and it underpinning everything I’ve ever done vs slowing down at times and making sure you look after yourself and your health.”
