It's common knowledge that it's unwise to take on Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The 6ft 5in Sweden international is an intimidating opponent - for his impressive frame as much as for his skill with a football. The striker, now at AC Milan, enjoyed just short of two successful seasons at Manchester United, during which time he scored 17 goals in 33 league games and proved he can 'do it' in just about any league in the world.
No doubt Ibra's United teammates were glad he was lining up for them and not against them. But you don't achieve what Ibrahimovic has in world football without being demanding, both of yourself and those around you. And after his on-pitch demands got too much for Marcos Rojo, the two had to be separated by their boss in the dressing room at half-time.
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Signed by Louis van Gaal in August 2014 from Portuguese outfit Sporting for £16million, Rojo remained with the club until 2021 when he had a falling out with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer over Harry Maguire playing ahead of him - something he's recently been all too happy to talk about.
And Maguire's not the only former teammate that Rojo's bad-mouthed, either. The Argentinian also says he had to be pulled away from Zlatan at half-time after calling the Swedish forward 'big nose'.
Rojo previously told Cielo Sports: "Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] has a strong character, Ezequiel Lavezzi had warned me. I knew he wanted us to give him the ball all the time, but during a game phase I saw him ask for it and I didn't give it to him. I passed it to Paul Pogba.
"Then he started yelling at me, raising his hand and telling me a lot of things in Spanish and English. I said to him: 'What's going on with you, big nose? Shut up'. I knew that if he caught me he would kill me so the only thing for me to do was face him.
"When he entered the locker room, I directly told him to close his mouth and stop yelling. We started to insult each other and all our teammates were watching us.
"And in the middle, Jose Mourinho was trying to calm us down."
The defender has elaborated on the incident since, saying: "In a game he got heated and I answered him. I started bitching at him. We both started to fight each other, the first half ended and we went to the locker room.
"I said: 'No, now I have to go in and let him see what he does', did you see I was prepared, I already went, I have to sleep where it comes in... I told him: 'You stop yelling at me', he told me, 'No, you pass me the ball, play forward'. I stopped too, but I was saying: 'To this one that they catch him...'. Mourinho came in there very hot, he began to kick everything."
Rojo also revealed that Mourinho told the pair to calm things down in training.
"[Mourinho] is always happy," the centre-back told Clarin. "He's always close to the players, he's a very happy person, he helped me a lot, he got the best out of me. He always tells us to play quietly in practice because with Ibra we kill each other with kicks.
"[Ibrahimovic] is an amazing character, but for those who don't know him he seems like a bighead but he's a phenomenon, he's a beast who goes forward and wants to win everything."
Ibra later appeared to push Rojo out of his selfie with the Europa League trophy - all in jest though as the pair were good friends off the pitch.
Rojo recently revealed how they made up following the half-time bust-up. He told TyC Sports: "The next day I was having breakfast, he came, grabbed me from behind the neck and we started laughing."
Standing up to senior players is not always easy, never mind when they are 'terrific winners' like Ibrahimovic. Rojo reflected on his experiences growing up in Argentina - insisting that backing yourself against 'bigger people' can be difficult, but that it is vital you do so in order to ensure they don't walk all over you.
However, he also admitted that fights in football are common. For Zlatan, his aggressive approach came from a desire to win - and he would drag his teammates along with him whether they liked it or not.
"You have to stand up later," Rojo added. "But imagine that as a boy I always played in the neighbourhood with bigger people. If you can’t stand it, if you don’t make yourself respected, they’ll pass you by. I was always like this. Off the pitch you know me, I’m a super calm person, I laugh all day. But on the pitch I don’t care about anything. If I have to annoy you, I annoy you. Whoever. And if I have to fight, also. Obviously it isn’t the best.
"But in football there were a thousand fights. Players like Zlatan have a terrific personality. He’s a winner. He gets at you because he wants to win. He knows that you can give more. I learned a lot from him. One of the biggest winners I saw."
Ibrahimovic and Rojo were on the pitch together on 38 occasions during their careers at Old Trafford. They were part of the Reds squad that won the Europa League and League Cup in 2017, even if they were both injured for the triumph over Ajax in Stockholm.
It was Zlatan who grabbed the headlines in the League Cup final - scoring the winner in the 87th minute - but Rojo also played the full 90 minutes in the triumph over Southampton. The pair went their separate ways in the years that followed, with the Argentinian defender returning to his homeland, while the Swedish great recently helped AC Milan win their first title in more than 10 years, with a stint in the US coming beforehand.
Very few players have truly spoken their minds to Ibrahimovic during his career, but Rojo even went a step further. Thankfully, for his sake, they were good friends and the pair quickly moved on. Nevertheless, Mourinho was there to get involved if things did happen to go sideways.
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