Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes says he stopped doing commentary work to fit his schedule around the routine of his autistic son Aiden.
The former England playmaker co-parents the 20-year-old with his ex-wife.
After retiring as a player in 2013, the 50-year-old moved into management before working in the media as a pundit and commentator.
“Everything I’m going to do now just works around him,” Scholes said on the Stick to Football podcast.
“I do studio work, but everything is built around his day.
“Last season on Thursday nights I’d do the Europa League for Manchester United. That’s the night I’d usually have him, so he was getting all agitated, biting and scratching. He knows the pattern’s not there straight away.”
Scholes initially kept his son’s diagnosis secret during his playing career and revealed he was dropped by United manager Sir Alex Ferguson while attempting to handle the situation privately.
“I never got a break from it, even when playing – it was very hard in those days,” Scholes, one of United’s key players in the 1999 Treble season, added.
“I don’t think they diagnosed it until he was two-and-a-half years old. But you knew early something was wrong, but then you get the diagnosis, and I’d never heard of it.
“I remember the first time after it, we were playing Derby away and I just didn’t want to be there.
“I remember the manager dropped me the week after, and I hadn’t told anyone. I ended up telling them a few weeks later, as it was quite hard.
“Even now, I don’t want sympathy or anything. I just thought, even if I did speak to someone about it, it’s not going to help Aiden.
“The big concern now is, because you’re getting a bit older, what happens when you’re not here? That’s the thing that’s now on my mind all the time.”
Autism spectrum disorder – its medical name – is the name for a range of conditions that affect how a person communicates and interacts with the world around them, as well as their interests and behaviour.
It is not a disease or an illness, but a condition that somebody is born with, and it is estimated that one in every 100 people in the UK is autistic.
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