Patrice Evra has revealed how he almost attacked Luis Suarez in the street following their 2011 racism row.

Suarez was banned for eight matches and fined £40,000 after being found guilty of abusing Evra during Liverpool vs Manchester United.

And the former Man Utd left-back has now revealed that he almost attacked the Uruguayan in the street after the incident.

ENTER GIVEAWAY

ENTER GIVEAWAY

Speaking to the Diary of a CEO podcast on Monday, Evra explained what happened: “One day I was walking in Manchester in Deansgate and my brother said ‘oh it's Luis Suarez over there’. I was with two of my brothers.

“I looked at him and I was like ‘That's it, this is the moment’.

“And he walked, and behind him I saw his kids and his wife.

“And I turned my back. I was like ‘if you do something to him you can't do this in front of his family’.

“So I don't regret it because I think it would have ended up bad. I did nothing that day.”

Evra and Suarez

Later during that 2011/12 season, Suarez refused to shake the hand of Evra before United hosted Liverpool at Old Trafford.

However, when he met a few years later ahead of Juventus vs Barcelona in the 2015 Champions League final, they did greet one another.

“I was talking with Neymar, he (Suarez) passed, he come he shook my hand, he say ‘you ok?’. I said ‘I’m ok,’ Evra explained.

“So no beef, but we're definitely not going to go on holiday.”

On the podcast, Evra also spoke about the mental battle moments after Suarez had racially abused him.

“I was proud of myself because I was talking to myself - ‘should I punch him? But Patrice, this is Liverpool vs Manchester, all the kids are watching this game, people won't understand’.

“The second half, it was a process, I was like talking to myself ‘don't do it’. You know when you have like a devil and an angel ‘don't do it, do it, don't do it, do it’. All the game. I wasn't in the game.”

Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra

He also revealed Sir Alex Ferguson’s reaction towards referee Andre Marriner when he found out what had happened.

“After the game I just sat and Ferguson saw me and was like ‘Patrice what's the matter? You had a good game,’” Evra recalled.

“David de Gea say ‘Suarez called him a ne**o.’

“Even on the pitch I said to the referee ‘did you hear what he just say, he call me with the n-word’ - but the ref replied ‘play, play, play, we're going to deal with that later’.

“We went to the official, we tell him, and he said ‘yeah, yeah, Patrice told me about that’. So Ferguson was like kill him: ‘so you were aware, why didn't you send him off?’”

But Evra then had to endure seeing Liverpool players come out in support of Suarez by wearing t-shirts with his name on during a pre-match warm-up after he had been found guilty.

Luis Suarez

It was something that Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher apologised for on TV last year.

“I did a TV show with Jamie Carragher. We start talking and he said ‘Patrice, I just would like to apologise about what happened nine years ago, what we have done is wrong’.

“I was in shock, I didn't expect that. I received letters from the owners of Liverpool, emails, saying you're more than welcome here. It was so nice.”

A nice ending to what has been a difficult chapter in Evra’s life.