Chris Smalling has revealed who is the fastest player at Manchester United

'They wouldn't want to race me,' says United man

(GETTY IMAGES)

Manchester United and England centre-back Chris Smalling has revealed who the fastest player at the club is - himself.

"Yeah, I'd back myself against the majority (of the squad) whether it be over five, 10 or 40 metres to be honest," Smalling told the official club website.

"That might surprise a few people but I think if you asked most of the guys, they wouldn't want to race me."

Smalling has named Angel Di Maria, Adnan Januzaj and James Wilson as his main rivals for the crown among Louis van Gaal's first team squad.

He also said he'd be game for a race between the quartet.

"When we do warm-ups, we do five or 10 metre sprints... it's never an actual race but hopefully come pre-season we can put that to bed and have a race. I'm game for that."

Manchester United players will return to their Carrington training ground on Monday for their first day of pre-season ahead of the club's tour of the US later this month.

The club play four matches in two weeks in the US, three in California and one in Chicago on their way back to Manchester.

"It's all about getting your fitness up," added Smalling.

"Of course we go on tour and that means experiencing different countries, different occasions and lots of hard work. Winning games in pre-season always helps going into the start of the season and that's our aim.

"We'll do some group things and fitness work, then we all break off into different categories where you can focus on your particular area of the team."