Manchester United kept their hopes of silverware alive against Norwich City on Saturday night.

Aside from fighting for Champions League qualification, the Red Devils are also challenging for the FA Cup and Europa League trophies and they're now just two wins away from the former.

That's because they avoided a potential banana skin at Carrow Road in the sixth round fixture, avoiding the fate that befell Jose Mourinho's Tottenham Hotspur before lockdown.

However, it wasn't an easy night for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men as they were taken all the way to extra time after Todd Cantwell cancelled out Odion Ighalo's second-half opener.

After more than three months away from the pitch due to the coronavirus pandemic, some of the players being forced to play for 120 minutes was always going to be a tough ask.

Norwich City 1-2 Man Utd

As far as United are concerned, the players who had to play every single minute were: Sergio Romero, Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw, Bruno Fernandes and Ighalo.

The new substitution laws have made it somewhat easier for the players' legs post-lockdown, but one of the aforementioned stars who played the whole game never flagged in their effort.

We are, of course, talking about Fernandes, who has become something of a fans' favourite at Old Trafford since moving from Sporting Lisbon in the January transfer window.

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Fernandes' incredible commitment

The Portuguese midfielder already has six Premier League Man of the Match awards to his name in just seven appearances and he brought his quality to the FA Cup on Saturday, too.

He topped the charts for shots (7), chances created (5) and successful take-ons (3) as well as winning three tackles and producing 72 passes in the final third.

However, if there's one moment for which United fans loved him the most in East Anglia, it was an incredible display of hard work and determination an entire two hours(!!!???) into the tie. 

It came 24 minutes into extra time, but with 12 additional minutes of various stoppage times having been played prior to that, the clip of Fernandes came with 126 minutes in his legs.

We'll let the video do the talking - check it out below: 

What an absolute trooper.

Fernandes started 10 yards out from the centre circle, only to sprint as far as his fatigued legs would allow him all the way to his byline at which point he managed to muscle Jamal Lewis off the ball.

You can even see after Fernandes offloads the ball to Nemanja Matic that, despite being absolutely exhausted, he's still determined to jog back up the pitch to help United keep fighting.

And it's that sort of mentality that led to the Red Devils bagging themselves a winner just a few minutes later with Maguire sweeping the ball home after Paul Pogba's pass into the box. 

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If it wasn't for the small moments like Fernandes showing his unwavering commitment, then who knows if United's big moment at Carrow Road would have transpired.

United really have found themselves a gem of a player.