Phil Neville says he was 'joking' about two-footed tackle on Tomas Rosicky

Former Manchester United player Phil Neville has admitted that he was joking when he claimed that he would punish Tomas Rosicky with a two-footed tackle if he tried some tricks on him in training.

The 38-year-old initially made the comments on the BBC's Match of the Day 2 while discussing Rosicky's performance in Arsenal's 3-2 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

On air, he said: "If that was a training session and somebody did that I'd be first over there and I'd probably look to two-foot him or take him out of the game. If somebody did that in training to me, winding me up, I would be straight in there. I'd smash them."

After receiving criticism on social media, Neville clarified his remarks by tweeting: "The Rosicky 'look one way pass the other' piece was tongue in cheek by someone who wasn't capable of doing such!!!"

Rosicky got on the scoresheet for Arsenal at The Amex yesterday, along with Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil.