REVEALED: First right-back given twisted blood by Man Utd legend Giggs

Neil McDonald was the first right-back to face Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs in his senior career.

On that Saturday afternoon in 1991, Everton’s Neil McDonald was the first defender in the League to suffer ‘twisted blood syndrome’ after coming up against Giggs. And he wasn’t the last.

Even now McDonald, coach alongside Sam Allardyce at Blackburn before Rovers’ new Indian owners rang the changes, still remembers how his game-plan to handle the young Welshman quickly ran into trouble.

“We’d heard about this young lad called Giggs who was making his debut but when I saw him before the game in the warm-up I just saw this frail looking wiry kid,” McDonald told the People.

“My first thought was ‘well, if he comes my way I’ll just smash him and put him in his place’. The reality, though, was a lot different! For such a skinny lad he was quite strong but his real strength was that he was a free spirit.

“He had tremendous poise and balance, and he could weave in either direction. I remember trying to force him down the line because he wasn’t the finished article at that point and his crossing wasn’t great.

“His final ball into the box to pick out a man was a bit erratic but he had genuinely terrifying pace and because you didn’t want him going past you, it seemed you were giving free-kicks away all the time because he panicked defenders with his speed.”