Gary Neville was left outraged after Bastian Schweinsteiger revealed how his Manchester United career came to a bitter end.
The former Germany international signed for Manchester United in 2015 after a glittering career at Bayern Munich.
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The World Cup winner began life at Old Trafford under Louis van Gaal and helped the Red Devils lift the FA Cup in 2016.
However, Van Gaal's subsequent exit as head coach saw Jose Mourinho handed the Old Trafford hotseat in a move that would spell the end of this stint in Manchester.
Schweinsteiger exited the club in 2017 to join MLS side Chicago Fire before hanging up his boots two years later.
The German was a recent guest on Neville’s Stick to Football podcast and lifted the lid on how his final season under Mourinho unfolded, much to Neville’s despair.
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“It was 2016 and I was with the German national team, we went far in the competition (European Championships) reaching the semi-finals, so I stepped in a little later (at Manchester United) and the team were in the US for a pre-season tour,” Schweinsteiger told former United captain, Neville.
“When I arrived on the first day, I trained with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and thought it was great, a player who has the vision and is amazing to play with.
“The next day, on my birthday, when I walked into Carrington, John Murtough (Man United football director) was there and said that I wasn't allowed to walk into the dressing room, the coach had said so. No warning, nothing.
“I don't know (why he told me). Someone could have told me there (on my first day of training) or explained it to me in a normal way, but okay, I went to the youth dressing room and trained with the under 16s.”
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Neville cut a flabbergasted figure at the German’s revelation, failing to understand why Murtough had informed him of the banishment.
Schweinsteiger then added that Murtough was forced to bring him his boots and training wear due to being banished from the first-team dressing room.
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“I asked him who I was training with, and he said there was the Under-16 team, so I went and trained with the Under-16s,” Schweinsteiger said.
“I asked him whether I could talk to the manager in the afternoon, so when I came back from training with the Under-16s, where I trained so bad because I didn't know what was going on or it was a joke, I then had a meeting with (Mourinho) in the afternoon.
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“He explained to me that he didn't see me happy here at United because when I had my injury, I did my rehab with German doctors, spending time in Germany.
“I was training alone for at least three months with a fitness coach,” he added. “I trained before and after the first team.
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"Mourinho never let me train with the first team. I guess they wanted to get rid of me. In that moment, I was still super happy at United, I loved to wear the jersey, I loved it.
"I was thinking that maybe it was just a period, I will train now and keep myself fit and maybe one day they'll change their mind. My dream was to always step back out into Old Trafford."
Neville was outraged at what he was hearing and labelled the actions of his former employers as ‘illegal’.
“I was the PFA Union Representative, and you’re not allowed to do that,” said Neville. “You can’t dismiss someone like that, it’s constructive dismissal in some ways.”
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“It’s probably a few years too late, you should have come and seen me at the time. I’m stunned and embarrassed at what I’m hearing because I always think, players leave clubs and people fall out, but there is a way to do things and a way to behave and act.”
Schweinsteiger did reveal that Mourinho eventually apologised for demoting him albeit too late to repair the fractured relationship.