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For the past five decades, it has been in the possession of Isle of Man resident Roy Gough, a friend of crash survivor Dennis Viollet.

In 1958, Roy took it upon himself to collect messages of support from the friends and families of the United players after he heard what happened in Munich.

Dennis Viollet (r) with Albert Scanlon

His tape arrived in Germany a few days after the crash and on receiving it, the players were moved to send one back. Now, for the first time, that recording is being made available to the public.

On it, two of the recuperating team – Dennis Viollet and Sir Bobby Charlton – can be heard thanking their families for the messages, but it’s the third contribution from Ray Wood, which includes the most poignant comments.

Wood talks of the team all being "in good spirits" and gives a good luck message to the players making their debuts for United that Saturday (the FA Cup game against Sheffield Wednesday – the club’s first since the crash) from the hospitalised players and "the boys upstairs, who we haven’t seen for a couple of days".