Furious Carragher was left in agony after the crunching tackle snapped the former England player's leg during a match in September 2003 while Neill was still at Blackburn Rovers.

But in his autobiography - now being serialised in the British press - he admitted he almost got his pals to mete out his revenge.

The Daily Mirror revealed this astonishing extract from the autobiography: "My mates were ready to hunt him down if I gave the go-ahead.

"A few weeks later I received a phone call. 'You won't believe this, Jay. We're in [Manchester shopping mall] the Trafford Centre and Lucas Neill is walking straight towards us. What do you reckon?'

"Did I really want Neill to take a crack? 'There's only one problem,' added the voice. 'Little Davey Thommo is with him.'

"That was that. I could hardly let one of my best mates, David Thompson, now a Blackburn player, become a witness to an assault.

"Besides, he'd have recognised the attackers. The impromptu mission was aborted and I sent a text to Thommo telling him Neill should give him a hug of thanks."

Carragher added: "As word got back to Blackburn about the near miss, or should that be hit, their coach Terry Darracott, a Scouser, appealed to one of my friends to call the boys off. I agreed."