Monday 16 May 2016 11:16, UK
Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata has revealed the players were "shocked" by the security alert at Old Trafford on Sunday.
United's Premier League game against Bournemouth had to be postponed until Tuesday evening after the stadium was evacuated shortly before the scheduled 3pm kick-off after a dummy bomb was found on the back of a toilet door by a member of the club's staff.
Mata, writing in his weekly online blog, also says the players, who had been warming up on the pitch before the alert was sounded, initially feared the device was a genuine bomb before it was blown up in a controlled explosion.
The Spaniard wrote: "This is one of the weirdest posts since I started writing this blog, and that was almost four years ago.
"We were all shocked by what happened at Old Trafford on Sunday. The postponement of the game (finally we will play on Tuesday) by the appearance of a suspect package that we were informed could be explosive.
"The performance of all the people in charge of security was efficient and there was a rapid evacuation of the stadium. That helped not to spread panic, but we all had a strange feeling; a mixture of tension and misunderstanding.
"Fans left the stadium before us. I think we left Old Trafford around five, with the feeling that everything was under control.
"I am sorry that all these people had to go home without seeing a football game, which is what they had come to see.
"Safety, of course, is always the most important, but what I'm really sorry about is all these kinds of issues affecting football, sport and society in general. Many of us think that sport has the ability to unite people, and that is something we must keep believing."
Manchester City's draw at Swansea all-but secured them the final Champions League place for next season, leaving United needing to beat Bournemouth by at least 19 goals on Tuesday in order to snatch fifth place.
"It will be a bitter-sweet farewell to Old Trafford, after learning that will not be next season in the Champions League," added Mata.
"Of course, it leaves us with a bad taste because although we enjoyed good times together and shared joys, we have failed to qualify for the top European competition.
"Certainly there were many difficulties, especially for the many injuries suffered by the team, but Manchester United must be ambitious and strive for the maximum."
