Man Utd star who became priest returns to club and makes admission

Former Manchester United player Philip Mulryne has revealed how he keeps up with the club – despite not having access to a TV.

Belfast-born Mulryne, now 47, joined United at 16 and won the FA Youth Cup in 1995. He made his Premier League debut against Barnsley on the final day of the 1997/98 season. He left for Norwich City in 1999, making around 200 appearances for the Canaries before stints with Cardiff City, Leyton Orient and non-league King's Lynn.

He turned to religion at the end of his playing days and was ordained as a priest in 2017. Speaking at an event celebrating United's Academy, Mulryne spoke of his passion for the Red Devils and revealed how he keeps up to date with Ruben Amorim's team.

"We don't have TV in the monastery," he said via Belfast Live. "We have a room with a couple of computers, so I watch the three-minute highlights. I get all the highlights, so I keep in touch with it."

On being back at the club, he added: "I’ve only been back here once, apart from today, in the last 20 years. I took 100 young people from a school that I was teaching in to a game against Newcastle, maybe about eight years ago.

“It was an unbelievable opportunity to see their faces and to be around the place again. I do keep in contact with it as much as I can.”

Mulryne also shared an incredible story about Alex Ferguson's kindness during the most challenging period of his career when he suffered a broken leg at Norwich.

"First of all, he gave me my debut," he said. "But a year after I signed for Norwich, I broke my leg. It nearly ended my career.

"I woke up in hospital that night and the first phone call I got was the gaffer, offering that I could come back to the club for all my rehabilitation, and I had left the club a year.

"That was unbelievable for me and that was testament to the personal element to the club, not just the on-the-field, off-the-field attention to the person. That's a wonderful testament to the club and the people in it."

He likened his religious superior to the role of a football manager, adding: "I have a superior in the monastery that I answer to, like a manager, like a gaffer. All these things have been great. I had a most wonderful career. It was a dream to come here and play."

Mulryne also touched upon his family's passion for the game, saying: "My dad was a huge Man United fan, I grew up hearing about George Best, like many players from Northern Ireland. To come across at 16 and to play in the first-team was just unreal. And then to be at Norwich as well."