Roy Keane may have left himself open to be sued by Alfie Haaland after admitting he meant to foul the Norwegian, players' union chief Gordon Taylor said.
Taylor feels Keane's comments in his autobiography that he wanted to exact retribution on Haaland back in April 2001 during the last Manchester derby were "ill-judged".
The Football Association could charge the Manchester United skipper. More seriously, Taylor reckons Keane's confession could lead to legal action by Haaland.
The Manchester City midfielder aggravated a knee injury in the tackle by Keane and has not started a game for the Blues since.
Taylor said: "Whilst it may make good copy and profits for the book publishers and the writer, it puts Roy in a bad position.
"He could face action from the FA, if not possibly legal action from Alfie Haaland. We tried at the time to calm things down between the two and we've had too many player v player cases.
"We don't want that to happen again, but this has just opened up old wounds again at an unfortunate time. I think Roy has been ill-advised and his comments are ill-judged.
"Roy is a committed player and a forthright player, but following what happened in the summer I just don't think he needed this.
PA