Bruno Fernandes thankful to the NHS and his brother

Although only 26, the playmaker has a mature outlook and has shown his strength of character since joining the Reds, not only in keeping his cool to maintain a 100 per cent record from the penalty spot in some high-pressure situations.

The fact his father Jose worked in Switzerland meant he had to take on more responsibility at home and he moved to Serie B side Novara as a teenager.

When asked by United Review if it was almost a case of him having an old head on young shoulders, he replied: “No, I can say I’m a little bit different. To go as a youngster to Italy, I needed to grow up. I grew up without my dad for five years as he was going to work in Switzerland. So I was with my mum, my brother and my sister so, for me, everything was quick.

“You need to improve and to be different, grow up and help my mum do everything – even like going into the supermarket, that kind of thing. You just look at it now and it seems like normal things but, at that age in the past, it was not normal. Normally, the dad and the mum go to the supermarket, you don’t need to. Sometimes, I would go to take my sister to school. Normally, the mum does this. I grew up quickly.