Former MK Dons midfielder speaks out after jokes about his looks

Luke Chadwick admitted he did not want to go out when he was younger because he was ridiculed for the way he looked.

Chadwick, 39, played the majority of his career at Stadium MK and was a fan-favourite, racking up just shy of 250 appearances between 2008 and 2014, but made a name for himself coming through the youth ranks at Manchester United.

Making his professional debut as a teenager, Chadwick - now a coach in his boyhood club Cambridge United's academy - became the butt of jokes on BBC sports quiz They Think It's All Over because ofhis looks, to an extent he felt he did not want to go out.

"I wouldn't want to go out. I was always looking at people," he told BBC Sport. "People knew who I was because I played for Manchester United and I always assumed they'd be saying horrible things.

"Being a quiet, nervous boy anyway, it sort of intensified that and maybe stunted my growth as a person

"I became a picture of fun, and that was probably the hardest thing. A popular TV show - [the attention] was magnified, so that's what I was seen as by everyone off the back of that.

"I used to dread it coming on the telly. I wouldn't watch it but then I'd get a text off someone saying 'oh you've been on that show again' as if it was a joke.

"Obviously people were finding it funny, but it was eating away at me a bit inside while that was happening."