Bayer Leverkusen defender Timothy Fosu-Mensah has explained leaving Manchester United.

With his deal running out in the summer and having played just three times this term the Holland international made the difficult call to leave.

"It was my decision. The manager was good to me but at the end I was not playing a lot," said Fosu-Mensah, who played 30 times for United's first team after graduating from the academy.

"When you are 22, 23, 24 years old you need to be playing. I didn't play much and I wanted to. It was the best decision in the end to go somewhere else where I would get more minutes.

"The club and the manager (Ole Gunnar Solskjaer) were good to me. I recovered from a big injury, they helped me, gave me minutes - I played in the FA Cup semi-final and the Europa League semi-final.

"But it's important to play regularly and to get my opportunity in the national team too.

"Ole has been very good to me. I spoke with him because he had a big injury as a player so he knew exactly how I felt.

"When I played against Crystal Palace (in July) after 16 months out he was very happy for me. These were very good moments. He knew I had the quality. I have no bad things to say about him because he has been very good to me.

"But Bayer Leverkusen is a very nice club with tradition, good people and good players."