Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has opened up on life with his son, Aiden, whose autism means he is non-verbal.
Scholes, 50, said he stepped away from football punditry to prioritise his 20-year-old son's routine.
"I made a decision this year because of Aiden, obviously due to his special needs you might know about," Scholes told the Stick to Football podcast.
"All the work I do now is just around his routines because he has quite a strict routine every single day, so I just decided everything I'm going to do it is around Aiden."
"I'm not with [his mother] Claire anymore so we have him three nights each, and Claire's mum has him on a Friday night," he added.
"We always do the same things with him as he doesn't know what day of the week it is or time. But he'll know from what we're doing what day it is.
"I pick him up every Tuesday from his daycare and we go swimming. Loves swimming then we get his pizza on the way home. Thursday pick him up, go for something to eat, go home. Sunday, I pick him up from Claire's house and we go to Tesco where he buys a trolley full of chocolate. So, he doesn't know what day or time it is, but he knows from what we're doing what day it is. He'll be 21 in December."
Scholes said that parenting Aiden at times impacted his playing career, including when he was diagnosed.
"We didn't know what was in store for us," he said. "There's some kids who don't speak at 2 years of age, then at 5 or 6, bang they're speaking they call it a late development stage. But we just knew it was never going to be like that.
"I didn't speak to anyone at the club about it. Even now I don't want sympathy or anything. I just thought even if I did speak to someone about it, it's not going to help Aiden. I don't know what would help me."
He added: "He'd bite your arm or scratch you just out of frustration for him cos he didn't understand things, couldn't tell you how he was feeling. I never got a break from it, even when playing. It was very hard in those days, feels like it was years ago.
"I don't think they [doctors] diagnosed it til they were 2½ years old. But you knew early something was wrong but then you get the diagnosis, and I'd never heard of it.
"Then all of a sudden you start seeing everything, I don't know if it just consciously happens, I don't know. I remember the first time after we were playing Derby away and I just didn't want to be there. I remember the manager dropped me the week after actually, and I hadn't told anyone [about the diagnosis]. I ended up telling them a few weeks later, I think as it was quite hard."