Man United: Paul Scholes stopped commentary work to care for son

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.