Gary Neville recounts terrifying moment on a plane when he feared he was ‘going to have a heart attack’, as Man United legend opens up on his hectic work schedule

Gary Neville has revealed that he hastily removed himself from a plane after fearing he was experiencing a life-threatening heart attack. 

The Manchester United legend is ever-present in the footballing media landscape today with his appearances on Sky Sports and his hit podcast Stick to Football. 

The 49-year-old also has a broad business portfolio which includes Hotel Football outside of Old Trafford, University Academy 92 and League Two side Salford City. 

Neville infamously said in a 2022 interview on The Diary of a CEO podcast that he struggles to take breaks from his relentless schedule. And he has now opened up on a scary incident – presumed to be an anxiety attack – that convinced him to alter his way of working. 

‘I knew there was something wrong.’ He said on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast alongside his wife Emma. ‘I’ve never experienced anxiety in my life. I didn’t even know what it was.

The former Man United star joined his wife Emma on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Hour podcast

‘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.’

The former defender had been mocked by fans for referring to holidays as ‘mini-retirements’ during his interview with fellow Dragon’s Den host Steven Bartlett. 

‘But what you can have is mini-retirements during the year, and that’s what I’ve tried to do. I don’t do it very well.’ He said. ‘So for instance, this weekend I’m going to Spain Friday until Monday morning. That’s like a mini-retirement.’

A confused Bartlett laughed: ‘That’s a weekend…’

In addition to the incident on the plane, Neville opened up on another episode which had actually inspired him to change his thought process on leisure time. 

‘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 was been mocked by fans online after an old clip of the Manchester United legend claiming he enjoys ‘mini-retirements’ resurfaced

Neville is a near-constant fixture on screens in the UK due to his role as a commentator and pundit on Sky Sports

Luckily for the Neville family, the ex-Red Devils star insisted that he has continued to refine his approach to enjoy a healthier work-life balance. 

He added: ‘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.’