Northern Ireland defender Ryan McLaughlin has revealed how Craig Bellamy once called him "every swear word under the sun" during a training bust-up.
It came when the pair were at Liverpool together, and not long after McLaughlin had joined the Reds as a trainee from school in 2011.
It was during McLaughlin's first training session at Melwood that he earned the wrath of former Welsh international Bellamy.
And all because of a dodgy decision the then teenager made after being asked to run the line in a practice match.
Speaking to Goal, McLaughlin said the incident was "crazy".
He added: “I was 16, and I think I’d been over in England for a month.
"The Under-18s were playing the first-team in a bounce game, so our coach Mike Marsh asked me to help out by being linesman.
“Before we started, he told me to try and give us as many decisions as possible. He was my coach, so I was like ‘sure!’
“Anyway, Nathan Eccleston was playing up front for the 18s and he goes through one-on-one against big Sebastian Coates. Coates takes him down and I flag for a penalty.
“Bellamy has sprinted over to me and honestly, he called me every swearword under the sun! There’s me, just out of school, and he’s in my face giving me all sorts.”
Standing in shock, McLaughlin - who is currently with Rochdale in the EFL League One - said he summoned up the nerve to bite back at Bellamy, which earned him the respect of Kenny Dalglish.
“I had to!” McLaughlin says of his retort to Bellamy.
“Kenny Dalglish pulled me aside after that game,” he says. “'I f*cking love that from you!'.
"I remember going back to the academy afterwards and it was all anyone was talking about. They were all like ‘that’s you f*cked, you can’t go back up there now!’”
