Scholes revealed that when he was told Aiden had been diagnosed with autism he did not want to play at all. And he played so badly that Sir Alex Ferguson dropped him from the line-up for the next match. He recalled: “We got the diagnosis. We were playing Derby away. I was terrible, absolutely shocking. I didn’t want to be there. Head was gone. I was worrying about autism, reading, trying to find out anything I could.
“I never got a break from it, even when playing – it was very hard in those days. I don’t think they diagnosed it until he was two-and-a-half years old. But you knew early something was wrong, but then you get the diagnosis, and I’d never heard of it. I remember the manager dropped me the week after, and I hadn’t told anyone. I ended up telling them a few weeks later, as it was quite hard.
“Even now, I don’t want sympathy or anything. I just thought, even if I did speak to someone about it, it’s not going to help Aiden. The big concern now is, because you’re getting a bit older, what happens when you’re not here? That’s the thing that’s now on my mind all the time.”