Gary Neville feared he was going to have heart attack in terrifying plane ordeal

Gary Neville has revealed he feared for his life as he felt the onset of a heart attack while on a plane.

Since hanging up his boots for Manchester United and England, the 49-year-old has launched himself into a broadcasting career and several other ventures in and out of football. He's been a regular on Sky Sports' Premier League coverage since 2011, aside from his short stint as manager of La Liga side Valencia.

Neville has also built a business portfolio, developing property such as Hotel Football outside Old Trafford, launching University Academy 92 down the road and investing in local club Salford City. His second-to-none worth ethic is often lauded by his former team-mates and colleagues.

But he explained how that can be a double-edged sword having suffered what he thought was going to be a life-threatening heart attack, which was actually a presumed anxiety attack after overworking himself in the weeks prior. He recalled what happened to Fearne Cotton, alongside his wife Emma.

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He told her Happy Place podcast: "I knew there was something wrong. I've never experienced anxiety in my life. I didn't even know what it was. But I actually stopped a plane coming back from America. I was flying back from Miami and I was sat on the front of this plane and I knew that I'd obviously pushed myself over the previous couple of months.

"And I was literally thinking 'I'm going to have a heart attack'. I felt like I was literally going to die. I said to the steward 'I'm going to have to get off'. I stopped the plane, got off and stayed in America for an extra night, my bag got taken off the plane and I thought 'this is not right, you need to calm down a little bit' and I think I have done since."

Neville admitted that taking breaks wasn't a strong point for him, and that's what led to his now-infamous "mini-retirements" comment when appearing on Stephen Bartlett's Diary of a CEO podcast. He detailed another scary moment which also caused him to re-think his approach.

"I'm not very good at that at all, and I think people around me will regularly tell me, including Emma, that I need to relax and calm down," he continued. "Two or three years ago I had a little incident, it was like a fit basically.

"I had a football match and I had some tests done and they just said 'you need to calm down a little bit and do different things'. And that's where I came up with 'mini-retirements', weekends away."

Neville now has a coping mechanism in place to avoid a repeat of his plane ordeal, looking to strike a more healthy and manageable work-life balance. He explained: "It's really crazy because I need an itinerary in my life.

"So I know on October 14 - we've just had our break for three weeks, last week I was away filming, so it was the first week back after the summer, and I'm already looking forward to October 14 when I know that we're going away for three or four days. So for me I always have to think about those next six weeks.

"I know next week I'm away working for four days, three days in America the week after. I know that I'm going to be manic for a period of time and I need to put those moments in, so I think about those moments more now but I'm not very good at it all, Emma's much better at it."

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