Wrexham midfielder Rathbone's gratitude to Man Utd

Wrexham midfielder Ollie Rathbone has said it will be a "humbling experience" when he plays against former club Manchester United on Saturday.

Rathbone, 29, came through the United academy and among his contemporaries were World Cup players Marcus Rashford and Scott McTominey.

Although released by United in 2016 after eight years, Rathbone will be forever grateful to the Old Trafford club.

"They really looked after me in quite important years and I can't say a bad word about it," Rathbone said.

"It was something I'm very proud of to go through that academy.

"I kind of got a real good base of how hard you have to work to be a footballer.

"And even though it's such a glamorous club, it kind of really drilled in the basics into me of what it takes to be a professional footballer

"It gives you that determination to have a career, because you're fully aware of how difficult it's going to be and how hard you're going to have to work.

"It will be a bit of a humbling experience playing against them again."

Blackburn-born Rathbone did not make the first team breakthrough that Rashford and McTominey achieved at Old Trafford.

He was released after eight years in the summer of 2016 and joined Rochdale, where he spent five seasons,.

"It's got a good record of producing players to play in professional football," said Rathbone of United's academy.

"A lot of people speak about the Marcus Rashford's, the Scott McTominay's that have gone on to the top level of European football.

"But there's also hundreds of players that have had fantastic careers in the league.

"And I know that the people at Manchester United are just as proud of them as they are of the headline names."

Rathbone moved on to Rotherham in 2021, where in the first of his three seasons there he helped the club achieve promotion to the Championship.

He joined Wrexham in the summer of 2024 and has established himself as a key member of Phil Parkinson's Championship side.

But Rathbone sustained a serious ankle injury during a pre-season game against Sydney FC in July 2025 which resulted in him missing the first 20 league games of the season.

Rathbone describes the injury as a "nightmare" but he returned by scoring a late equaliser against Watford last December and was a regular for the second half of a campaign in which Wrexham just missed out on the Championship play-offs.

"I think if you look back at last season our form from the Christmas period onwards was promotion form, definitely play-off form," Rathbone said.

"I think that first quarter of the season was probably just the team gelling together, kind of working out where we were as a group."

Wrexham's preparations for their second season in the Championship will see them head off to the United States next week to face Leeds United, Liverpool and Sunderland.

But before then there is Saturday's friendly at Helsinki's Olympic Stadium where Rathbone will be up against the club that he left 10 years ago.

"As soon as it came about, it was quite a bit of a pinch-me moment," Rathbone said.

"To travel around Europe and play in one of the best clubs in the world is a privilege, really.

"It's something that I know that we're all really, really looking forward to.

"I think that's the benefit of having these quite high profile friendlies.

"It kind of makes you raise your game a little bit that you can't really afford to coast through.

"So, it does bring the intensity up to where it needs to be going into the season.

"I think, compared to this time last year, we know that we're at that level now, so I think we will hopefully be able to start as we left off."