United said "Apologies, Norman. We owe you one!" after missing 1980s forward off list
Monday 13 January 2020 15:33, UK
Manchester United have apologised after mistakenly leaving forward Norman Whiteside off their list of youngest players to reach 200 games.
Marcus Rashford reached the milestone in Saturday's 4-0 win over Norwich and was initially thought to be the third-youngest to reach 200 games, behind only George Best and Ryan Giggs.
However, Whiteside's wife Dee pointed out on Twitter her husband, 54, had also brought up 200 games younger than Rashford in the 1980s and, indeed, was the youngest to do so in United's history.
United put out an apology to Whiteside, who is also the youngest player to appear in a World Cup final tournament at Spain 1982 and the youngest goalscorer in an FA Cup final.
He had only just turned 21 when he made his 200th appearance for United in 1986.
Under the sub-heading, "Apologies Big Norm", United wrote on their website: "The initial version of this article had incorrectly omitted club legend Norman Whiteside, who made his 200th United appearance against Leicester City on 6 September 1986 (not counting four matches in the Screen Sports Super Cup).
"That means the Old Trafford favourite is the youngest player to register 200 competitive outings for the club, which is an incredible achievement.
"Apologies, Norman. We owe you one!"
Rashford had already mentioned on social media his pride in getting to 200 games, and later wrote on Twitter: "Appreciation tweet for the great Norman Whiteside. Never to be overlooked."
