In the final moments before Saturday’s match, Tyrhys Dolan will pick up his phone and look at the photo of Jeremy Wisten, the best friend for whom he would give it all up. He will touch the No 24 on his shirt, chosen to commemorate the day Jeremy died, aged 18. And then he will head out to where it all comes to him and it all leaves him too. “I feel nervous every game,” Dolan says, “but when I’m walking though the tunnel it’s like it’s all dropping off me, the shackles fall. All the graft, everything you gave to get here, this is it, now you’re free. You have responsibility, but it’s like the playground again.”
Some playground. This is not the Dales Estate, Salford. This time the Santiago Bernabéu awaits. “These are the stadiums any kid dreams of, but it’s not even for me. I’m quite selfless,” Dolan says. “I’ve always got satisfaction from other people’s enjoyment. It’s a moment for everyone around me, friends and family, to be there, to see these places and say: ‘Remember when he was in the park,’ to look back and think: ‘We’ve been through so much, now we’re here.’”
