Wes Brown: The day I lost Eric Cantona's boots

One of Wes's duties as a youth-team player was to look after Cantona’s footwear but on one uncomfortable occasion, the young defender had to tell the senior professional that his boots were missing.

“I’ll never forget the day he came to ask me where his boots were and I didn't know," said Brown, ahead of his reunion with Eric at today's Soccer Aid for Unicef match at Old Trafford.

"I nearly had a heart attack when I realised his boots had disappeared. To this day, I still don’t know where they went!

“I was a teenager at the time when Eric joined and we were all in awe of him. We’d play jokes on some of the other lads but any time Eric used to walk into the training ground we’d all go quiet. He just had this aura about him and what he did for the club and brought to the team was amazing. It’s great he’s coming back to Old Trafford and it’ll be great for me to play against him."

Cantona will be joint manager of the World XI team, alongside Harry Redknapp, when they face England on Sunday evening at a packed Theatre of Dreams.

“Whenever someone says Old Trafford to me I just smile and I feel happy,” beams Brown, when asked how it feels to be back at his former stomping ground.