We don't want to make you feel old or anything but it has now been six years since Gary Neville retired from playing football.

The former England international spent his entire career at Manchester United and won virtually everything there was to win over the course of 19 years at Old Trafford.

However, Neville's career came to an abrupt end midway through the 2010-11 season, following a particularly difficult start to the season.

In a very honest interview with The Beautiful Game, sat alongside brother Phil, Gary opened up on the exact circumstances behind his decision to retire.

The 42-year-old was convinced by Sir Alex Ferguson to stay on an extra year after a strong finish to the previous campaign in 2010 but it didn't take him long to realise he could no longer compete at the level United fans had grown accustomed to seeing on a weekly basis.

In fact, many supporters will probably recall one of his final appearances in Man United's colours came against Stoke, where he was taken off just after half-time following a disastrous first 45 minutes.

It was a similar story against West Brom, where he was substituted after 70 minutes and that's when Neville frankly admitted to the manager he couldn't continue.

“I started playing against Stoke and West Brom and when you’ve got average players causing you a problem you know you’re in trouble," he said.

“I played three games that season and nearly cost us, in fact I did cost us against Everton away.

“I should have been sent off twice. And that’s when I said to Alex Ferguson, ‘I’m going to cost you here it’s not going to work, I just don’t feel right at all’.

“I’d retired there – even though I played on for two months and played another couple of games, in my mind I’d gone."

“I knew after 20 minutes of that game [Stoke] it was my last one for United, the fans were singing my name but at half-time I sat the toilet on my own thinking ‘I want this to end’."

It was an unfortunate end to an illustrious career and Neville admitted he felt embarrassed how his last few months at the club went down.

He added: “I came into the club, pretended I was injured to be around and speak to the lads.

“I retired on January 2 but it wasn’t announced until early February. I was embarrassed every day when I was in thinking this highly elite football club has a guy going in every day who’s a passenger.”