Wayne Rooney gave Michael Gray a black eye during their infamous fight in a Manchester nightclub in 2006, forcing the former Premier League star to wear sunglasses in order to hide it from the press
Wayne Rooney didn’t take kindly to Michael Gray’s comment during a night out(Image: Carl Recine/Getty Images)
Ex-Premier League star Michael Gray has ruled out fighting Wayne Rooney in a charity boxing match – 20 years after the Manchester United legend left him with a black eye. Gray, 51, is happy to leave Rooney ‘one-up’ after their infamous fight in a Manchester nightclub.
The two footballers were on separate nights out at Panacea bar, a hotspot for celebrities, in September 2006. But Gray rubbed Rooney the wrong way when he allegedly asked him: “Which one are you having tonight?” in reference to the group of women he was sitting with.
But what the former Sunderland defender didn’t realise was that Rooney’s now-wife, Coleen, was present. Rooney snapped, punching Gray and leaving him with a black eye.
The three-time England international had to wear sunglasses in order to hide his bruise from paparazzi. In a new interview with the Mail, Gray was asked if he fancied going for a rematch against Rooney in a charity fight.
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“I think I’ll leave it at Wayne being one-up,” he replied. “I’m not that type of person who I think would climb through the ropes to have a white-collar fight, if that’s what they’re called these days.
“But no, it was just one of those moments that you look back on and I can have a laugh and a joke about it now. It’s something that plenty of people ask me about, but what do you put it down to? A mistake at the time, but we’ve been fine since, so I’m over it.”
At the time, Rooney’s spokesman alleged that Gray – who was playing for Blackburn Rovers – had offended Coleen as well as the other women at their table. “Wayne and Coleen were enjoying a night out with three other couples and were having a quiet dinner when Michael came up to their table uninvited,” they said.
“Michael then began making remarks which were offensive to Coleen and Wayne’s other female guests. Several times, Wayne asked Michael to leave. It was a brief incident and as far as Wayne is concerned, he bears no ill feeling towards Michael.”
Gray also discussed the incident last year on the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast. “Everybody just blows the story up as it goes on,” he claimed.
Michael Gray is now a commentator(Image: Getty Images)
He clashed with Wayne Rooney on and off the pitch(Image: Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
“We were at Blackburn and Man United came into the nightclub. Wayne Rooney was there, three or four of the players; myself, Gary Flitcroft, Stephen Reid. So I was in there and we had the booths, one with Blackburn lads here and Man United lads there. We were young at the time and we were enjoying ourselves. Lots of girls around.
“I saw the Man United players and I leant over all the girls and, I’ll keep this clean, I just said, ‘alright Wayne, which one are you having tonight?’ because (that was) just normal conversation that we’d have, not knowing that Coleen was one of the girls that were in the crowd next to him.
“So he didn’t really like that, and I got one in the eye and that was pretty much it to be honest with you. But then it came out, ‘Gray asks Rooney and Coleen for a threesome and everything’. It was a load of rubbish.”
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