Patrice Evra has revealed the Manchester United dressing room’s furious reaction after Nani cried during a defeat to Liverpool in 2011.

Dirk Kuyt scored a hat-trick at Anfield as the Reds ran out 3-1 winners, but the game is also still remembered for one horror tackle from Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher on Nani.

The winger had already gifted the Reds their second goal of the afternoon, inexplicably heading Luis Suarez’s cross back into his own six-yard box for a grateful Kuyt to head home. But his game came to a premature end after he was stretchered off following Carragher’s challenge on the stroke of half-time.

The Liverpool defender surprisingly avoided a red card from referee Phil Dowd, with both sets of players angrily confronting each other in the aftermath of the incident. However, that came to an end after it was spotted that Nani was crying on the floor.

And reflecting on the incident, Evra has admitted the United squad "were ready to kill" the Portuguese, revealing how he ended up being given a week off training following an angry confrontation with United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

“I remember when Nani had a crazy challenge against Jamie Carragher against Liverpool,” Evra recalled on BBC Radio 5 Live. “And we start coming and fighting with the player.

“And I remember Paul Scholes saw Nani crying because you could see the bone. And when we saw that, we just said like, ‘come on guys!’ And we left.

“I remember Ferguson at half-time when Nani was at the massage table and Ferguson came and he said, ‘I really hope you really broke your leg because crying at Anfield, this is impossible’. So this is to tell you the mentality.

“We were waiting for Nani the next day and Ferguson had to give him one week off. He said, ‘I’ve given him one week off because mentally he is not ready to come back.’ But we were ready to kill him.”