{"id":101132,"date":"2025-10-31T05:41:57","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T05:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=101132"},"modified":"2025-10-31T05:41:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T05:41:57","slug":"scholes-stopped-commentary-work-to-care-for-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=101132","title":{"rendered":"Scholes stopped commentary work to care for son"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 1 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
\n

Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes says he stopped doing commentary work to fit his schedule around the routine of his autistic son Aiden.<\/p>\n

The former England playmaker co-parents the 20-year-old with his ex-wife.<\/p>\n

After retiring as a player in 2013, the 50-year-old moved into management before working in the media as a pundit and commentator.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything I\u2019m going to do now just works around him,\u201d Scholes said on the Stick to Football podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do studio work, but everything is built around his day.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast season on Thursday nights I\u2019d do the Europa League for Manchester United. That\u2019s the night I\u2019d usually have him, so he was getting all agitated, biting and scratching. He knows the pattern\u2019s not there straight away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scholes initially kept his son\u2019s diagnosis secret during his playing career and revealed he was dropped by United manager Sir Alex Ferguson while attempting to handle the situation privately.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never got a break from it, even when playing \u2013 it was very hard in those days,\u201d Scholes, one of United\u2019s key players in the 1999 Treble season, added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t 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\u2019d never heard of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember the first time after it, we were playing Derby away and I just didn\u2019t want to be there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember the manager dropped me the week after, and I hadn\u2019t told anyone. I ended up telling them a few weeks later, as it was quite hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven now, I don\u2019t want sympathy or anything. I just thought, even if I did speak to someone about it, it\u2019s not going to help Aiden.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big concern now is, because you\u2019re getting a bit older, what happens when you\u2019re not here? That\u2019s the thing that\u2019s now on my mind all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Autism spectrum disorder \u2013 its medical name \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n \n
\n \n \"Happy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Happy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sad\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sad <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Excited\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Excited <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sleepy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sleepy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Angry\"\n <\/a>\n
Angry<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Surprise\"\n <\/a>\n
Surprise<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\"ScholesFormer Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes says he stopped doing commentary work to fit his schedule around the routine of his autistic son Aiden.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,11614,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football","category-paul-scholes","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=101132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=101132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=101132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=101132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}