Paul Scholes has not been short of coaching work recently and now the former Manchester United star has popped up at his boyhood club Oldham.

Scholes coaches United’s youth players at Carrington and also spent a week helping out at non-league Stalybridge Celtic last month after manager Jim Harvey left the club.

The 38-year-old took a training session with Oldham manager Lee Johnson on Thursday but chairman Simon Corney insists it was just as a favour.

‘It's straightforward,’ said Corney. ‘Paul is a friend of mine and a friend of the club. We regularly text and speak and he comes to lots of the games.

‘I asked him to meet Lee Johnson because I thought they would get along very well and to come to a training session. He's done that and I would imagine it would be a fantastic boost for the players to see him.’

Scholes, who was at Oldham’s game against Swindon Town last weekend, regularly had to field questions about whether he would manage the League One club before he retired as a player last summer.

He admitted last year: ‘It’s quite difficult to say. I don’t know what will happen when I stop playing and Oldham have a manager.

‘But I love Oldham and it’s the first result I look out for every week. I take my lad to watch them whenever I can.’