West Brom's Ben Foster Reveals the Family Reasons Why He Chose to Leave Manchester United

Ben Foster has revealed that his family will always come before his career ahead of a reunion with former club Manchester United on Sunday The veteran West

Ben Foster has revealed that his family will always come before his career ahead of a reunion with former club Manchester United on Sunday

The veteran West Bromwich Albion star will take on the Red Devils at Old Trafford this weekend with his side looking increasingly likely to drop out of the Premier League this season, and spoke to Sky Sports ahead of that bout.

The Baggies are rooted to the foot of the table with five matches left of the 2017/18 campaign, and need a miracle to better their relegation escape story of 2004 in the final few weeks of this term.

Stu Forster/GettyImages

Foster has kept goal for much of this season for West Brom but, ahead of possible keeping a second successive clean sheet at his former stomping ground, the 35-year-old admitted that his main priority was on looking after his family and not, in fact, football.

He said: "It's no secret football is not my biggest passion in life. As soon as the game is finished on a Saturday it's back to the family, and that's what's most important to me."

Elaborating on that point, Foster revealed that his spell with United probably came at the 'wrong time' for him due to the amount of games and travelling he had to do - factors that meant he had to leave his family behind constantly.

Matthew Lewis/GettyImages

He continued: "It was probably the wrong time for me. I was starting out with a young family, I had a toddler and a two-year-old. I'm a very family-orientated person anyway.

"With a team like Man Utd they're always in the latter stages of cup competitions so there's a game every three or four days. You spend a lot of time travelling, in hotels. It just wasn't for me.

"You can appreciate these players at the top level, what they have to go through. A lot is asked of them."

Alex Morton/GettyImages

(You may also be interested in Jay Rodriguez Escapes FA Punishment Over 'Unproven' Racism Claims After Investigation)

Foster has featured 218 times for West Brom since January 2012 and has had to battle in the lower half of the league for much of his career since he departed Manchester in search of regular first team football.

It is unclear just how much longer he'll remain in the game as he enters the twilight of his career, but the ex-United youth star admitted that his future would be dictated by how his knees hold up in the coming seasons.

He said: "As long as my body, and my knees, hold up I'll keep going. But my knees are made of glass to be honest so they could break at any time!"