Man Utd defender Marcos Rojo leaves team-mates stunned with huge tattoo of Diego Maradona posing as Fidel Castro on leg

MANCHESTER UNITED star Marcos Rojo has stunned team-mates with a striking tattoo of Diego Maradona on his leg – dressed as a Cuban rebel leader.

Rojo, 30, chose an image of the late great in a cigar-chomping Fidel Castro pose, complete with a communist cap emblazoned with a star.

The international defender – currently on loan to his boyhood club Estudiantes in Argentina – spent painful hours having the inking on his right leg.

It is a near perfect copy of a picture portrait of the Hand of God star taken when he lived in Cuba – before his death at 60 last November after surgery on a brain bleed.

Rojo commented ‘first session’ with a post of the tattoo on his Instagram account, suggesting further inked tributes to his hero are planned.

Maradona famously had a strong relationship with Castro.

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The Argentina World Cup star visited him in Cuba in 1986 and returned to the Caribbean Island several times – taking football shirts as gifts.

It is also reported that Castro helped Maradona with his drug addiction once he retired and offered him Cuban healthcare.

Castro died on November 25, 2016, and an emotional Maradona said he ‘was like a father to me’.

Maradona added: “I’ll go to Cuba to say goodbye to my friend. He opened the doors to Cuba to me when Argentina was closing them on me.”

Maradona died exactly four years after Castro on November 25, 2020, which led to an outpouring of tributes from around the world.

Man Utd misfit Rojo, meanwhile, moved to Estudiantes on loan last year.

He made 76 league appearances in six years on Old Trafford having joined in 2014.