Moran kept Irish secret

The former defender played in both the 1983 and 1985 FA Cup final victories, famously becoming the first man to be sent off in the showpiece event, during the latter match against Everton.

His background was in GAA, including hurling, as he did not even start playing football until the age of 14.

Speaking as the latest guest on UTD Podcast, to be released in full on Monday, he provided a tale about how life was back then, with the Reds due to play in his home city of Dublin on Sunday, against Athletic Club, live on MUTV.

"I wasn't sneaking home [to Dublin to play Gaelic football]," insisted Moran, laughing. "No [there was no agreement in place]. You must remember the Gaelic football season, the championship season in Ireland is a summer season. And here, in the summer, you get a break off then as well. So I did go back and I trained with Dublin. 

"When I went back in the summer of '78, I played in the Leinster semi-final, the Leinster final, the All-Ireland semi-final and all those games. The club never knew anything about it.

"None of those things filtered back. The great thing about that period was it was the age of no social media. There's no interest back here in it. I'm not coming back to shout my mouth off about it either. Even the players in the dressing room might not have known about it because what am I telling them for? You know, there was no need to.

"I just went and played in these games and it was only when we got to the final in '78 that the management team, Tony Hanahoe and Kevin Heffernan, thought we'd better go over and ask permission for Kevin to play in this particular game."

Luckily for Moran, Reds boss Sexton was happy for the youngster to keep fit during the close season but the decision backfired when he was in the wars during the contest in Ireland, something that would become a theme for the all-action centre-back throughout his career.

"So they came over and asked Dave Sexton and Dave was brilliant about it," recalled the 67-year-old. "He said: 'By all means, sure he can go'. Actually, he said: 'Why don't you go over a week beforehand and you can train with them. That's how good he was and they were delighted with that.

"Unfortunately, it didn't work out great because, on the Tuesday before the final, when I was training, I pulled my hamstring. But then I played through the whole game with a pulled hamstring, though it was gone from the first warm-up session. I just played whatever and I went through the whole game with it just pulled the thing asunder. 

"So when I got back to United, oh by the way, which very seldom happens, I ended up with nine stitches in my head as well! I knew you'd laugh at that! But the truth is you don't usually get stitches in Gaelic football. But it was a fluke injury, somebody's knee went into when I was down on the ground, just by accident.

"So I went back the following day and it took me nearly three months to get the hamstring right. You know, I gave it six or seven weeks and then it'd go again. So it was a very frustrating time for me."

Look out for the full Kevin Moran UTD Podcast on Monday.