Casemiro smiled kindly on a pitch-invading fan by gifting him his shirt following Manchester United‘s 2-0 win over Everton at Old Trafford.

The midfielder made a point of removing his shirt and ensuring it got to the young fan, who was being dragged away by stewards for his infraction.

United claimed a pivotal three points thanks to first-half penalties from Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford – after Alejandro Granacho was fouled twice.

It leaves them eight points behind Aston Villa and three behind Tottenham having played more games than both, but it does keep their Champions League hopes – however slim – alive.

Casemiro’s gesture was applauded and cheered by the United faithful, who showed the 32-year-old some love before he disappeared down the tunnel.

Manchester United fans applauded as Casemiro gifted his shirt to a pitch-invading fan

He played the full 90 minutes but it was hardly his best performance.

Mail Sport’s Nathan Salt gave him a five in his player ratings for the game and wrote that ‘most of the groans on Saturday lunchtime were reserved for the Brazilian’.

He could face the axe in the summer with Sir Jim Ratcliffe looking to freshen up United’s squad.

The Red Devils paid £60m for him in the summer of 2022, bringing him from Real Madrid.

While his form was exceptional last campaign, his performances have declined this campaign and he has been the subject of criticism amid United’s inconsistent form.

Thierry Henry recently put forward his perspective on why Real Madrid were content to offload him and Raphael Varabne to Old Trafford.

He said: ‘There’s one thing you have to give them [Real Madrid] a lot of credit for, the ability they have to make sure they build a team with keeping some of the old guard with them to make sure that they can explain to the guys coming, the young guys coming.

‘If you look at it, if [Kylian] Mbappe goes there, they’re going to have a team that can be dominating Europe and dominating their league for maybe six to seven years because they’ll all be young.

‘The one thing they do ever so well is they know when to get rid of players. I am not talking about the players that are logical to get rid of. I am talking about it was time for [Cristiano] Ronaldo.

‘It was time for Casemiro. It was time for [Mesut] Ozil. It was time for Varane, which was more, I think, of a knee issue, if I understand well.

He was happy to make the young fan’s dreams come true but it was another difficult day for him on the pitch

United claimed a 2-0 win over Everton thanks to first-half penalties from Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford

‘But if you think about those three – [Luka] Modric, [Toni] Kroos and Casemiro – they sold the youngest one. Why would you sell the youngest one?

‘Well, they noticed that those two can help [Federico] Valverde, [Aurelien] Tchouameni, [Eduardo] Camavinga and they do that ever-so-well and you have to give them credit because when you get rid of the players that I mentioned before, they were outstanding players at that time for your team.’