Carrick will have plenty to keep him occupied when he hangs up his boots

Michael Carrick has been travelling the country looking at areas badly affected by child poverty. He looks at the poor living conditions, inadequate diet, and the risk of tumbling into a life of crime and shakes his head. “Kids are suffering,” he says.

In looking for initiatives to invest money through the Michael Carrick Foundation, Manchester United’s club captain has focused first on two areas he knows well, near Wallsend, where he grew up, and near Old Trafford, his second home.

“We looked around Trafford Barn and it’s not the most glamourous of places, it’s deprived in parts, there’s poverty and kids are suffering,” Carrick says.“We looked around Wallsend, there’s child poverty all around. That’s where I grew up. I never felt like that [deprived].