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Former Liverpool defender Neil Ruddock has revealed that he received death threats after saying that he deliberately set out to hurt Andy Cole.

The Manchester United striker broke both his legs after a challenge from Ruddock in a reserve team fixture in October 1996.

Last month quotes surfaced from a radio interview Ruddock conducted back in 2010 in which he said he targeted him because of Cole's feud with his friend Teddy Sheringham and “because he annoyed me”.

Now Ruddock claims he was only joking and speaking at The Sportsman's Christmas party he sought to set the record straight.

He said: “It was last Halloween on a radio station, it was called Halloween tackles. They had my tackle against Andy Cole, it was a reserve game in 1996, 22 years ago, and it was Liverpool against Manchester United.

“It was an honest challenge that broke both his legs, I won the ball. The referee said play on but after that people were asking me about it, and me being silly, I said it’s not big and it’s not clever breaking peoples legs, I only meant to break one, I must have sat on the other one!

“But you know, they took it all out of context. I’ve had people sending me death threats, people chucking eggs at my house, but it was an honest challenge and it was play on.

“I was just trying to make a laugh out of it, but maybe I shouldn’t have said those things. It’s just unfortunate what happened to Andy. I’ve got no guilt, no regrets, it was play on. I was misquoted but I think people just want to sell some stories and make a few headlines.

“It’s bad because me and Andy used to get on. I tried to get a hold of him on Twitter and he blocked me so that means it hurt him.

“Andy if you’re there mate, it was an accident mate, I'm sorry, it was just one of those things, it was a freak accident and I hope you’re doing well.”

Ruddock made 152 appearances for Liverpool between 1993 and 1997. He was sold to West Ham in 1998 and later played for Crystal Palace and Swindon Town.

“The best six months of my life was the last six months I had at Liverpool,” Ruddock added.

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“I got £24,000 a week and I had Saturdays off - what a job that was!

“When I played managers ruled my life. If my manager said go and stand on your head for half an hour, then I’m going to stand on my ****ing head for half an hour.

“Top players rule managers lives now. They go: 'You go stand on your head for half an hour if you want to keep your job'.”

Ruddock believes Liverpool's Premier League title hopes rest on keeping Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino fit until May.

“If Liverpool lose any of that front three then they’re done,” he said.

“City can lose De Bruyne and Aguero, their two best players, when others can't.

“Football has changed. A few years ago City wouldn’t have been big enough but now you’re not allowed to tackle. Everything's worked for them at the right time. You used to be able to just bully people off the park.”