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Former Manchester United defender Wes Brown has recalled how terrified he was after losing a pair of Eric Cantona's boots when he was a youth-team player.

One of Brown's tasks when he was coming through the ranks at Old Trafford was to clean the Frenchman's boots.

However, on one occasion he misplaced them and was absolutely petrified of what Cantona would do when he found out.

"I’ll never forget the day he came to ask me where his boots were and I didn't know," Brown said.

"I nearly had a heart attack when I realised his boots had disappeared. To this day, I still don’t know where they went!

"I was a teenager at the time when Eric joined and we were all in awe of him. We’d play jokes on some of the other lads but any time Eric used to walk into the training ground we’d all go quiet. He just had this aura about him and what he did for the club and brought to the team was amazing."

The pair played in Sunday night's Soccer Aid match and though Cantona, 52, started the match on the bench, he received the biggest roar of the night from the crowd as he came on in the second half for a short cameo appearance.

Cantona spent four and a half seasons at United between 1992 and 1997, winning four Premier Leagues and two FA Cups during his time with the club.

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