It was the early hours of the morning, and Fabio Da Silva had briefly caught something on the news about a crash involving a plane from Brazil. The initial reports were unclear. It was only the next morning, when he turned on his phone to be met by a stream of missed calls and a plethora of messages that he would start to come to terms with the terrible fate of the footballers of Chapecoense, and how to deal with his own personal grief at the unfolding tragedy.

The Middlesbrough full-back had two friends on LaMia Airlines flight 2933, which ploughed into the side of a Colombian mountain last month, killing 71 people. Astonishingly, one of those friends survived. The other, along with 18 team-mates who perished on a British Aerospace jet which simply appears to have run out of fuel, didn't.

Da Silva has shared the same dreams as those players. He has taken similar flights. When the camera lingered on the 26-year-old during the minute's silence prior to Monday's victory over Hull City, the emotional toll the disaster had taken on him was almost palpable.

"A lot of those guys who died were just like me," he said. "Starting their football at a young age, leaving home and their family to follow a dream. You see yourself in them and know something like that could have happened to any one of us. Brazil is such a big country, you have to fly everywhere." At times, his voice falters, understandably so. "I'm sorry," he says. "It's still very hard for me to talk about it. I had two friends on that flight."

Da Silva was in the same Fluminese youth team as Marcelo Augusto Mathias da Silva, and Alan Ruschel, both defenders. Marcelo was 25 when he died in the mangled wreckage near the village of Cerro Gordo on November 28. Distance had diluted the time the trio had been afforded to spend together given their divergent career paths since their teenage years, but the camaraderie, the shared history, remained.

He added: "We played for the same team around the age of 13 and 14, as young guys together at Fluminese. They were good times." Again, emotion takes hold and detail is spared. Three players survived the crash, and Ruschel was one of those. Da Silva added: "He has been on television this week talking about his experience. I think you can appreciate that to see him there, still with us, was so emotional for me.

"I'd seen initial reports about a plane crash but they were confused reports. It was only later when I picked up my phone and there were so many messages that I soon realised the full extent of the terrible news. I just started to cry."

Medellin Plane Crash Show all 17 1 /17 Medellin Plane Crash Medellin Plane Crash Logo of Brazilian football team Chapecoense at the site of the plane crash in a mountainous area outside the Colombian city of Medellin. Plane carrying Brazilian football team Chapecoense crashes in Colombia Rex Medellin Plane Crash Rescue workers carry the body of a survivor of a plane that crashed in La Union, a mountainous area outside Medellin, Colombia AP Medellin Plane Crash Rescue workers carry the body of a man from a plane that crashed outside Medellin, Colombia. The plane was carrying the Brazilian first division soccer club Chapecoense team that was on it's way for a Copa Sudamericana final match against Colombia's Atletico Nacional AP Medellin Plane Crash Medical staff waiting for survivors of the crashed plane carrying the Brazilian football team Chapecoense, at San Juan de Dios La Ceja Hospital, in La Ceja municipality, near Medellin Rex Medellin Plane Crash Medical staff from the San Juan de Dios hospital transfer 27-year-old Brazilian soccer player Alan Ruschel as he arrives to La Ceja in Colombia Rex Medellin Plane Crash 81 people, including the players of the Brazilian soccer club Chapecoense, crashed in a mountainous area outside Medellin as it was approaching the Jose Maria Cordoba airport EPA Medellin Plane Crash Medical staff from the San Juan de Dios hospital transfer Brazilian journalist Rafael Henze as he arrives at La Ceja in Colombia after surviving a plane crash EPA Medellin Plane Crash razil's Chapecoense player Helio Neto is helped by paramedics at the San Juan de Dios clinic in La Ceja. Traveling on the doomed airliner that crashed in Colombia overnight were the players and staff of a Brazilian football club about to complete a fairytale journey from unknowns to would-be South American champions Getty Medellin Plane Crash Rescue workers search at the wreckage site of a chartered airplane that crashed outside Medellin, Colombia AP Medellin Plane Crash A charter plane carrying the Chapocoense Real football team crashed in the mountains in Colombia late Monday, killing as many as 75 people, officials said Getty Medellin Plane Crash Rescuers gesture near the wreckage of the LAMIA airlines charter plane carrying members of the Chapecoense Real football team that crashed in the mountains of Cerro Gordo, municipality of La Union Getty Medellin Plane Crash Supporters of the Chapcoense FC gathering at the club in Chapeco, Brazil EPA Medellin Plane Crash Supporters of the Chapcoense FC gathering at the club in Chapeco, Brazil EPA Medellin Plane Crash People pay tribute to the players of Brazilian team Chapecoense Real who were killed in a plane accident in the Colombian mountains, at the club's Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco Getty Medellin Plane Crash Fans pay tribute to members of the Chapecoense team in front of the club headquarters, in the city of Chapeco Getty Medellin Plane Crash People pay tribute to the players of Brazilian team Chapecoense Real who were killed in a plane accident in the Colombian mountains, at the club's Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco Getty Medellin Plane Crash People pay tribute to the players of Brazilian team Chapecoense Real who were killed in a plane accident in the Colombian mountains, at the club's Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina Getty

ACF, as they are colloquially known, were en route to Medellin, due to face Atletico Nacional in the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana final, South America's equivalent of the Europa League. "They are not a big club, but an emerging one," Da Silva added. "All the boys there, they never really had big contracts before, but because of their recent success they were finally starting to be rewarded. It was life-changing for them and their families to finally get that kind of security, and that's what makes this tragedy even worse."

Given the subject matter, Da Silva's tone is unsurprisingly sombre, but when the conversation eventually takes a lighter turn, it is soon punctuated by his infectious laugh, cheeky grin and approachable air that has helped him quickly settle in since his arrival from Cardiff City in August. He has appeared in the last three games in what have been his first Premier League appearances for more than two-and-a-half years, replacing the injured George Friend. He added: "George is a fantastic guy, the first to welcome me when I arrived here so it's hard in a way to be competing against him for a place, but that's just the nature of football."

Sir Alex Ferguson struggled to tell the Da Silva twins apart (Getty)

There is his unlikely love of golf: "I tried it when I was at Manchester United, and thought it would be so boring, but for some reason, I absolutely love it." The 22-handicapper added: "I know it's a sport where you have to wear bad clothes, but that doesn't put me off." And how about following in the footsteps of Juninho, his country's most popular export in this part of the world? "If I can end my spell here, whenever that is, as the second most popular Brazilian on Teesside, I'll be happy."

On and off the pitch, Christmas promises to be a hectic affair. Twin brother Rafael, who is now at Lyon, is one of more than a dozen family members set to descend on the North-East for the festive period. During their spell together at Old Trafford, Sir Alex Ferguson could only tell them apart by Fabio's wedding ring, but now both wear one, and almost implausibly, they even bear similar facial scars as souvenirs of almost a decade plying their trade in Europe.