Boys from Brazil raise the bar

Indeed, there have never been more than a quartet of Reds involved in any squad at the biggest tournament on the planet, even for England or any of the home nations.

The previous high for a non-UK and Ireland nation was Norway, in 1998, when Henning Berg, Ronny Johnsen and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer played for the Scandinavian country in France.

Qatar 2022 favourites Brazil kick their tournament off with a game against Serbia on Thursday night in Group G (19:00 GMT).

Alex Telles, who is currently on loan at Sevilla, Fred, Casemiro and Antony are all options for coach Tite, as the South Americans aim to get their hands on the coveted trophy again.

Following the Serbia clash, the Selecao face Switzerland and Cameroon next week.

There have been five previous occasions when United have had as many as four players in a single World Cup squad.

In 1978, Martin Buchan, Gordon McQueen, Lou Macari and Joe Jordan were all in the Scotland side for the competition in Argentina.

Twenty years later, England picked Gary Neville, David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Teddy Sheringham. The Three Lions have often leaned heavily on United in other tournaments, with Wes Brown, Beckham, Nicky Butt and Scholes selected in 2002.

Come 2014, things had moved on to Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck, while, last time around, Jones was joined by Ashley Young, Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford.