Paul Scholes was one of the greatest midfielders the Premier League has ever seen, spending two decades in the Manchester United team and winning countless major honours.
He was a superb player, possessing the type of natural ability on the ball that few of his peers could match. The achievements in his career were made all the more impressive by his relative lack of physical gifts, with the Englishman well short in terms of physicality and running ability.
He also didn't help himself in terms of the lifestyle he was leading, especially in the early part of his career.
Paul Scholes opens up on drinking at Manchester United
While his teammates were doing everything they could to get themselves in peak physical condition, a young Paul Scholes was going very much in the opposite direction.
He used to spend a large portion of his time away from football in the pub, getting the pints in both before and after matches.
Speaking on The Overlap with Gary Neville, he opened up on the extent of his drinking while still a youth player at Manchester United.
Scholes: I was never primed to be a footballer, probably because of the way I lived...
My lifestyle when I was a kid, if you saw a kid doing it now you'd say that he would never play football for anyone...
Neville: On a Friday on the way home, you would stop and have a few pints before the game on Saturday wouldn't you?
Scholes: Yeah, I know. Madness.
Sometimes we would stay there until eight or nine o’clock at night from 12:30pm. I'm not proud of this, before A vs B games on Saturday mornings.
That was my lifestyle, I was brought up around pubs as a kid. Wherever I went with my mum and dad, it involved a pub. I was outside the pub kicking a ball against a wall, kids weren't allowed inside so I was out there waiting for my mum and dad all the time.
I remember once at 16 or 17, when I was in the youth team with Eric Harrison, he rang my dad and said 'we're a bit worried about Paul's drinking'. I don't whether someone grassed me up or not.
I always remember my dad saying 'he's allowed to enjoy himself, isn't he'. I remember thinking 'fuck, dad you shouldn't really be saying that'.
That's just how I was brought up. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, sometimes on a Monday, was going out.
Up until I was 18, that was it...
It wasn't up until I was 20 or 21, maybe even 22, that I stopped it all. I realised there was no way you could carry on doing that.
Considering all of this and the natural disadvantages he found himself at in terms of his physical attributes, it is absolutely remarkable that Paul Scholes made the grade at Manchester United.
It's fair to say he made a decent career out of it in the end.
SEE ALSO: The 5 Worst Manchester United Premier League Performances Ranked
