Brian McClair poses with son Liam ahead of his testimonialCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

Liam McClair has branched out from the family business

His son Liam was also on United’s books during Sir Alex Ferguson’s legendary reign – playing alongside the likes of Matty James and Federico Macheda.

But injury problems derailed his career and he ended up featuring at Old Trafford via a different route.

He told PlanetFootball: “I was 15 and had a few trial matches and signed a contract at the academy – it wasn’t a schoolboy one, so I continued to go to school at the same time.

“I was involved with the Under-18s who Paul McGuinness was coaching, but predominantly I was injured.

“I ripped a quad muscle just as I signed for them so I was out for about eight months with the rehab at Carrington, then I came back for a month or two, went to the Milk Cup, where we finished runners-up to Sao Paulo, I think, in 2007.

“Then I had keyhole surgery on my ankle, which was down to a previous injury, so I was out for another eight months. So I wasn’t really in the team that much. I only ended up playing a handful of matches.

“I was never selected enough to feel like I could play higher. I didn’t really establish myself enough, and by the time I came back from my second injury, I was training with players a few years below – the likes of Jesse Lingard and Ravel Morrison.

“I felt like the way I play changed due to the injuries and I wasn’t the same type of player, so I decided to stop playing after that.”

McClair, 33, decided he was not going to make the grade at United and went to university.

And it was there he found a new profession.

He added: “I always wanted to play football as a career, and music was something I did on the side.

“I played piano and trumpet as a kid, took up guitar as a teenager and did my first gig at school when I was about 17, I just did one song – I did the same the following year.

“Then I went to university to study sport in Liverpool and it wasn’t until my final year I pursued gigging and performing to make something more of what I was doing.

“I got some success as BBC Introducing in Merseyside played a few of my songs and had me on their show quite early on and that encouraged me, so I moved back to Manchester, kept gigging from then and started doing music full-time in September 2015.”

McClair is now a singer-songwriter, who plays acoustic guitar and piano and his music has been played at the ground his dad made his name at.

He explained: “It was pretty cool, it’s happened a few times.

“It’s quite nice that every time I have a new song that’s been released they’ve always been supportive, which is part of their family ethos, so I’ve never been forgotten.

“I was there when my song was played first, but I don’t think I’ve ever had one played at a win, so it might be a curse.”