'Always back yourself' - Katie Zelem lifts lid on being Manchester United captain

Manchester United captain Katie Zelem offered MMA fighter Jack Cartwright words of inspiration about leadership and commitment to sport while being put through her paces with the pads and gloves at his gym Wayfarer Academy in Longsight.

The Reds skipper met Cartwright before his fight against Croatian fighter Antun Racic which is taking place on November 4. The fight will be held at Oktagon MMA in Manchester.

The 27-year-old also shared some sound career advice with MEN Sport readers: “Don’t let one person define your career, especially in football, it’s based a lot on managers' decisions, what they think and what they think you bring to the team but often maybe you’re not in the right environment or playing under the right coach. So I think it’s important to believe in your abilities and always back yourself because there will be somewhere or some team that you’ll fit in and can be the main cog.”

Since re-joining the club in the 2019-20 season, Zelem has become an integral part of the squad's success, having taken the armband in their debut season in the Women’s Super League. She was a key player last season and she opened up on what life is like at United.

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“The schedule differs between single days and double days,” said Zelem. “On a double day we will go in, have breakfast, have a meeting, then we will analyse the team we’re playing or be analysing the match we just played.

“We will do pre-gym, train for an hour and a half to two hours on the pitch and then after training if it’s a double day, we’ll do gym and as captain, there’s