I was unemployed last summer so I called Darren Fletcher - now I could win a trophy with Man United

Jonny Evans has opened up on his return to Manchester United as the first season of his second spell at Old Trafford comes towards an end.

The Northern Irishman signed a short-term deal at the club last summer with the intention of being a backup option at centre-back. However, an injury crisis in defence for much of the campaign has forced Erik ten Hag to pick the 36-year-old in 29 matches across all competitions so far.

Evans previously played at the club for almost a decade before leaving to join West Bromwich Albion in August 2015. He went on to join Leicester City in 2018, winning the FA Cup with them in 2021.

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And Evans will now have the chance to win a second FA Cup as he looks to help Ten Hag's side shock Manchester City at Wembley on Saturday. The defender has opened up on how his surprise return to United came about last summer, starting with a phone call with former midfielder Darren Fletcher.

“I was sat in my house with my wife Helen and thinking, ‘I’m not a good trainer on my own in terms of going out on the roads running’,” he told the Athletic. “Maybe the odd run or two over the years when I’ve needed to but without thinking about it, I just thought, ‘I’ll ring Fletch’.

“He answered and said, ‘Let me get back to you’. When I put the phone down, I thought, ‘There might be issues with insurance, for example’, but I just wanted to train and get my fitness.

“Fletch (United’s technical director) called back a few days later and said, ‘The manager has heard that you want to come in. You may as well train with the first team’, so I did. When I went back, seeing all the staff after being away for eight years was the best part of it all.

“From there, the situation progressed daily. There was no intimation to me that the manager wanted to sign me with a contract but the injury situation prevailed right from the start of the season. There’s never been a stage this season where it wasn’t an issue.

“But I’m an experienced Premier League player and I’ve been in many a training session over the years, including at United. It’s not like I didn’t know where the level was at. I’d had injury problems at Leicester last season, so getting up to speed physically was probably my biggest challenge but I came through. I was OK. The training at United was at a high level and I just had to adjust, but my body got used to it and once I did, I was able to handle the demands.”

Evans knows all about winning the FA Cup as an underdog having beaten Chelsea while at Leicester City in 2021, and while he admits his United side will be underdogs again against Manchester City, he insists they need a different mindset.

"We’ll be underdogs on Saturday. Every team would be against Man City, especially with how they are playing — but we are Man United. We can’t think like we’re underdogs. We respect City as a team but we must do everything we can and we will. We had it with Leicester when we beat Chelsea after Youri Tielemens got a screamer of a goal. It can be done."