Manchester United have withdrawn themselves from the 2015 Milk Cup as their defender Paddy McNair withdrew himself from the competition draw on Tuesday.

Milk Cup organisers have said they are 'shocked and disappointed' following the club's decision not to take part.

The club released a brief statement indicating their reasons which said, “After a thorough assessment of the pre-season training needs of the first team and a detailed assessment of the medical impact of that plan on the reserves, Manchester United has decided not to enter a team in the Dale Farm Milk Cup."

For 25 years, the club has been supporters of the global tournament for youth teams and Sir Alex Ferguson was a well-known supporter of the competition hosted in Northern Ireland.

The Milk Cup has built up a reputation as one of the best youth tournaments across the continents with United often pulling in the best crowds with a huge following in Northern Ireland.

Manchester United have won the tournament on six occasions and therefore their decision to not take part seems odd. Milk Cup chairman Victor Leonard said: “This decision is a shock to us and will come as a huge blow to the legions of United supporters in the Province who back the club over the week of our event.

“We had written confirmation from them that they would be competing and the fact they have gone back on their word is extremely disappointing.”

Not only will Manchester United not be playing but their central defender, who has played in the Milk Cup on previous occasions, Paddy McNair has pulled out of being a part of the draw for the competition in Belfast.

Due to extremely late notice from the club, the draw has now been postponed due to McNair's absence.

“We know Paddy was keenly anticipating his role with us on Tuesday but permission for his participation was cancelled,” Victor Leonard revealed. “We had invested considerable time and money on the technical aspect of our visual presentation for the draw itself so that needs to be revamped.

“We are also in the process of finalising another team to replace United. Thankfully, we are always oversubscribed in all sections of the event but it is a matter of ensuring a replacement can put the necessary wheels in motion to compete at short notice with the event just two months away.”

With six wins and 12 finals to their name in the Milk Cup, many will be left bewildered by the decision, especially with the brilliant support the Reds have in the country.

“We have enjoyed a great relationship with the managers and staff at Old Trafford over many years, particularly during Sir Alex’s tenure and also his successor David Moyes. We have made several good friends in the Youth Academy in that time who always espoused the importance of the Dale Farm Milk Cup in the development of their players. They too were sympathetic to the strong link to Northern Ireland down the years.

“Sir Alex often spoke about that on his visits to the tournament and indeed supported many of its fundraising events.

“It gives us all a great sense of pride that many United players who competed at our event went on to become successful at the highest levels of the game. We remember their first success in the Premier section was in 1991 with a team captained by David Beckham and including Gary Neville, Robbie Savage, Paul Scholes, Keith Gillespie and Nicky Butt. The club’s current assistant manager, Ryan Giggs, also played here.”

Victor Leonard added: “We are disappointed by United’s decision but we realise that no team is bigger than the competition and we have an excellent line up for 2015 with all five continents represented and two La Liga clubs, Real Sociedad and Malaga, with us for the first time.

“We have prided ourselves in expanding into different parts of the world to broaden the appeal and give our followers the opportunity to watch players from different backgrounds challenge themselves against a variety of playing styles.

“In this respect I believe we will have one of the most exciting and competitive tournaments in years.”

The competition will begin on Sunday July 26th with a traditional parade of the teams through Coleraine, and will end with finals night on Friday July 31st.