From playing with Rashford to non-league and new career

A Tuesday night in Workington in late August and Joe Riley leads his Warrington Rylands team-mates out for a match at the Fibrus Community Stadium in the seventh tier of English football.

Rylands race into a 2-0 lead in Cumbria before losing 3-2 after having two players sent off in a chaotic Northern Premier League Premier Division encounter played in front of 638 supporters.

"A few years back I wouldn't speak for 24 hours if I lost," says Riley, whose side host Hyde United in the first qualifying round of the FA Cup on Saturday (15:00 BST).

"Now if we lose, it's not ideal, but there's always another game around the corner."

It is 10 years since Riley, then aged 19, started at left-back for injury-hit Manchester United against Danish side Midtjylland in the Europa League at Old Trafford, the same match Marcus Rashford also made his first start for the club.

While Rashford has gone on to rack up more than 400 club appearances and earn 78 England caps since scoring two in that emphatic 5-1 win, external a decade ago, Riley left United at 21 with two first-team appearances to his name - and drifted down the leagues after bad luck with injuries.

While recovering from one injury too many at League Two Walsall, he started studying for a new career.

Now aged 29, he sells life insurance, income protection, critical illness and injury cover as a financial protection advisor - while playing non-league football.

"I lived with Scott McTominay for six years, and Marcus and I also came through the academy together," Riley tells BBC Sport.

"These people were like family to me.

"Of course I would have liked to have played more games for United but things didn't work out like that.

"I don't dwell on the past - I'm just happy that it happened. I've now got my foot in the door for the next chapter of my life. I'm progressing with another career that's setting me up for the rest of my life."

Riley grew up in Lytham, Lancashire, and joined United at the age of six.

He went on to play for the under-18s with Rashford, Scotland midfielder McTominay, now at Napoli, and England goalkeeper Dean Henderson, who is at Crystal Palace.

It was while Riley was playing regularly for the under-21s, aged 19, that he - and 18-year-old Rashford - got their big break in February 2016 under Louis van Gaal.

Having come on as a substitute in a 3-0 win at Shrewsbury Town in the fifth round of the FA Cup three days earlier, Riley was named in the starting line-up for a Europa League last-32 tie with Midtjylland, along with Rashford.

United had lost the first leg in Denmark 2-1 and, missing several key players through injury, were in danger of going out of Europe.

England forward Wayne Rooney was among those out receiving treatment along with goalkeeper David de Gea, winger Antonio Valencia and defender Chris Smalling.

"The day before the game Van Gaal stuck the starting XI on a board at a team meeting," recalls Riley.

The young player carefully went down the list of familiar names.

Michael Carrick, Daley Blind, Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard, Memphis Depay... Joe Riley!

"I remember thinking: 'Oh my God'. It was a dream come true."

Riley's mum, Derren, and sister, Sophie, were in the 58,609 crowd at Old Trafford to watch him play 79 minutes.

By the time United's No 49 received a standing ovation when he was replaced by Argentina left-back Marcos Rojo, who was returning after three months out with a dislocated shoulder, Van Gaal's side were leading 3-1 on the night (4-3 agg), before scoring a further two late goals to book a last-16 European tie with Liverpool.

"I had a really good game but I do remember thinking that could be my last for the first team, because the likes of Rojo and Luke Shaw were working their way back from injuries," he says.

Riley's hunch proved correct.

While Rashford went on to play several more times that season, including United's FA Cup final win over Crystal Palace at Wembley, Riley did not appear again for the senior side.

He continued to train with the first team even after Van Gaal was sacked and replaced by Jose Mourinho in May 2016, and was named captain of the under-23s.

By 2017, however, injuries were already starting to disrupt his career.

A damaged hamstring delayed a loan move to Sheffield United and, when the player did eventually arrive at Bramall Lane, the loan was cut short after he dislocated his shoulder.

Riley's 15 years at United ended on 25 May 2018, two years after that magical night against Midtjylland.

While former under-18s team-mate Rashford was preparing to go to the World Cup in Russia with England, Riley joined League One Bradford City on a two-year contract.

Riley's two years with the Bantams included 10 months out with an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. Then there was a long-standing foot issue soon after joining Walsall in 2022, following an injury-free two seasons at League Two Carlisle.

"It took six months to find out what was wrong with my foot and then another three months to recover after surgery," says Riley.

He put those nine months to good use.

Riley started making plans for life after football in case he was forced to retire early because of injury.

"It was getting to the point of wondering if I was ever going to be able to play again because this pain was in my foot and nobody could find it. If you can't find something, how do you fix it?"

By the time specialists discovered the cause was floating bone fragments, Riley was studying for a new career in financial services.

Today, he works for a company in Sale, near Manchester, after bringing the curtain down on his full-time playing career after spells in the National League with Fylde and Tamworth.

"I'm loving it," adds Riley about his career in finance protection.

"Moving from full-time football to part-time was something I once feared, like many players do. Instead my job is rewarding, while I joined Warrington Rylands in the summer - a club I thoroughly enjoy being at.

"I've started my exams to become a wealth manager to help with investments and pensions.

"I don't want to play full-time again. Even if an opportunity arose, I'm too far down the road in terms of preparing for life away from football."

Riley's mum can be seen at Warrington Rylands matches supporting her son, just as she did on that cold February Thursday night at Old Trafford all those years ago.

"I will forever be grateful to Manchester United," says Riley, who is engaged to be married to Elizabeth, his partner for the past seven years, next summer in the south of France.

"United turned me into the person I am today - I've got them to thank for that."

And what about Rashford. Is he still in touch with his former academy team-mate?

"I don't have Marcus' number so we don't message. If I bumped into him, I've no doubt it would be just the same as all those years ago when we were growing up together.

"I saw [United boss] Michael Carrick in Portugal this summer and we had a really good chat."

Although he has moved on with his life, Riley does have one regret from his time with United.

Having played a small part in their triumphant 2016 FA Cup campaign, the young United substitute at Shrewsbury wishes he had pressed the club for a winners' medal.

"Had I done so then I probably would have received one," he says.

"I didn't go to Wembley because I wasn't in the squad for the final. At the time I was young and naive, thinking I'd have plenty more opportunities to get a medal.

"In the end I only got to play two first-team games for Manchester United. No-one though will ever be able to take those memories away from me."