The 29-year-old has not played for the Red Devils since January 2020 due to a debilitating knee problem that has dogged him throughout his career.

First identified during his academy years at Blackburn Rovers, Jones had an operation after Euro 2012 to remove the meniscus in his right knee. He was forced to manage the problem for years, playing at “60 per cent” because he would “do anything for United”, even though, by 2016, “any resistance against the knee was just agony”.

Jones then recovered fitness during the coronavirus-enforced shutdown last year but, when he had to stop running in training, he sought further treatment that culminated in surgery last August. The centre-back has been battling to recover again in the 14 months since and has now played two matches for United’s Under-23s, most recently against Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday.

Retelling the story of his progress and setbacks to the Times, Jones said the moment his knee gave up again last May left him considering whether the fight was worth it.

He said: “I’d lost my mind completely. I’m thinking, ‘I’m finished, can’t be bothered with all this anymore’. I went straight to the doc and said, ‘Enough’s enough. I’ve had too many anti-inflammatories, too many injections, too many close shaves. I need this sorted.’

“It was the lowest I’ve ever been as a human being. I used to come back [from the training ground] and be in bits. My head was an absolute mess. I’d be in tears. I’d say to [wife] Kaya, ‘I don’t know what to do’. I remember us both crying.

“She has kept the ship together while I got my s*** together. I feel guilty because she didn’t deserve having to deal with me every day and then look after the kids.”

Jones, who has just under two years on his contract, was prompted to speak out when former United team-mate Rio Ferdinand described him as a “waste of time” who was blocking a youth player’s passage to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s senior side. Solskjaer himself was angered by Ferdinand’s comments.

“Listen, the respect I’ve got is enormous,” Jones said of Ferdinand. “I’ve shared a dressing room with Rio – great professional. Loved playing with him. Great lad, good humour. Learnt so much off him. But what he said was poor. Really poor.

“I’ve done my absolute utmost. From tablets, to my diet, to setting up my house so that every time I get back from training I’m sitting in recovery boots and have my ice machine ready. Nobody can say, ‘You didn’t do enough’.

“I’ll fight for United until someone tells me, ‘Go somewhere else’.”

Jones, who was also heckled in the street while walking with his infant daughters, added: “In this society we’re living in at the minute, all the racism and stuff that affects mental health – I’d just say be careful. You don’t know how it’s going to affect players: physically, mentally, emotionally.

“Listen, my problems are not bigger than the problems someone has to deal with in an office, I know that. But they are problems. Footballers have problems like anybody else, and maybe me talking can help players.

“Every footballer has a tag and unfortunately mine is, ‘Let’s have a laugh at him’. But – and I say this in the nicest possible way – I know who’ll have the last laugh. I’m proud of my career and when it finishes and I’m enjoying my life – and by the way I’m super fortunate that I’ll be able to do that, because footballers are fortunate – [the keyboard warriors] will still be in their mum’s spare bedroom, sipping Diet Pepsi that’s flat, eating a Pot Noodle, sitting in their boxers, tweeting.”

Jones, who has only played eight times since the start of 2019-20, won the Premier League title during Alex Ferguson’s final season at the club and it was a meeting with his old boss that helped to boost him on his journey back to playing.

“He was just unbelievable for me,” Jones added. “I went to the premiere of his film with a few players and he came over, we shook hands and then out of the blue he said, ‘Hey, you were f****** terrific against Real Madrid away [in 2013]. F****** marking [Cristiano] Ronaldo.’

“It just gave me so much confidence. To be honest, I didn’t even watch his premiere, I was just sitting there thinking about his comment, thinking, ‘He remembers it… someone of his magnitude remembers that’.”