Manchester United football stars are likely to donate 30 per cent of their monthly salary to UK’s National Health Service in a bid to fight the coronavirus pandemic in the country according to media reports.

Man U’s Executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward had recently approached club captain Harry Maguire with the idea who then, along with the other players had decided to slash 30 per cent of their salaries, donating the amount to help NHS combat COVID-19 in the UK, the Sun reported.

Celebrities including sportspersons and sports federation have been pitching in with donations to their respective Health Ministries across the globe in a bit to tackle the global pandemic.

In India, the Union government had set up the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES) on March 28 to raise funds for fighting the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

The fund received donations worth lakhs from multiple sports persons, federations and independent organizations.

Sports celebrities including athletics star Hima Das, wrestler Bajrang Punia, Olympics boxing legend Mary Kom and cricketer Gautam Gambhir have donated part fo their salaries to the fund.

Cricket stars Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni and Mithali Raj have also donated lakhs of rupees to the fund in assistance.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India had ₹51 crore to the PM Cares fund.

Other federations who have made donations so far include Hockey India, All India Football Federation, Wrestling Federation of India and Badminton Association of India among others.

The Indian Olympic Association had donated ₹71 lakh to fight the pandemic in the country. The Ministry had received donations of over ₹19 lakh combined from state Olympic federations as well.

"I am very happy that our hardworking sportspersons are at the forefront of the battle to defeat COVID-19,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi had tweeted expressing his gratitude to the sports community.

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