Former Sunderland defender Pascal Chimbonda revealed that he was forced to train with the reserves under the order of Roy Keane.

The 45-year-old, who is currently the player-manager of English non-league club Skelmersdale United, spent just five months with the Black Cats after signing from Tottenham Hotspur in 2008.

The Frenchman was one of Keane's last signings at Sunderland as the Manchester United legend resigned from his managerial role just four months after he signed Chimbonda.

The former defender opened up about his experience playing under the Irishman when speaking at Ladbrokes Fanzone's North London Derby mural. "Roy's a hard man, you know," he said.

"I'm sure I'd have maybe had a couple of fines at Sunderland, and he made me train for a month with the reserves. But I never said anything, I never complained. As a manager, you have to respect his decision, at the end of the day."

Chimbonda admitted the pair never fostered a relationship during their brief time together while adding he rarely saw Keane during the week. "We never had a relationship, really. It's not like he was someone you'd see every day; we'd see him only once in the week... when we had a game.

"Then, maybe, we'd see him next Thursday, or Friday, when he'd pick the team. But we'd never see him on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday in training. You can't have a relationship with a manager when you never see him. That's not really something I was used to seeing, by the way."

That experience was certainly a far-cry from what Chimbonda had grown accustomed to during his two-year stint with Spurs. He added: "When I was at Spurs, for example, the manager was there every day, spending all his time on the pitch with us.

"For me, as a player, I want the manager to be there at training, because I want him to see everything I'm doing and make decisions based on what he's seen. But Roy was never there."

Despite Chimbonda's less than joyful experience in the North East, he had nothing negative to say about Keane as he remarked: "But I wouldn't say anything bad about Roy. He's a bigger name than me, you know, he's won many, many things. It's just that we never had a relationship".