Savage won the first of his 39 caps for Wales in 1995 after beginning his playing career at Manchester United, although he failed to break into the first team at Old Trafford.

He went on to play more than 600 games across the EFL and Premier League in a 17-year career, which began at Crewe, before he signed for Leicester in 1997, where he played more than 200 games and won the League Cup.

He played for Birmingham before joining Blackburn in a deal worth £3m in 2005 and ended his career at Derby in 2011.

Aged 45, Savage made a brief one-game comeback for non-league outfit Stockport Town in 2019 but has predominantly been working as a media pundit.

Savage becomes Forest Green’s seventh manager since 2022, following Rob Edwards, Ian Burchnall, Duncan Ferguson, David Horseman, Troy Deeney and Cotterill.