At the zenith of his career, in the charged moments before the biggest match he would play, Dwight Yorke made a phone call that few others would have thought of. Walking on to the pitch with his Manchester United team-mates before the 1999 Champions League final at the Nou Camp, words of gratitude were expressed to the manager who nurtured him.

For those who have pigeonholed Yorke as a playboy footballer, for those Aston Villa supporters who remain irked by his defection to Old Trafford, it is an image worth contemplating. Yorke returns to Villa Park with Sunderland today for “probably” his last game there, still in love with his first English club and still indebted to Graham Taylor.

Yorke's gesture before United's remarkable 2-1 victory over Bayern Munich stunned even a veteran such as Taylor, but, for the former Trinidad & Tobago captain, it was unforced.

“I remember standing there on the pitch and I just couldn't stop thinking that I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Graham,” he said. “That's how I felt, so I rang him up and told him.

“I thanked him for everything he'd done for me. It's no secret that he was the man who was responsible for me coming over to this country, he was the one who helped me make the grade. When I was at Man United, winning all those trophies, I always looked back and thought that if Graham hadn't given me the opportunity, I wouldn't be there.”

Those memories will again be to the fore this afternoon, should Yorke be selected by Roy Keane, his manager. “I began my professional career at Villa, learnt my trade there and

they're my team,” he said. “I've got loads of friends and family in that neck of the woods and they'll all be there, including my new son [Brandon Angel], so it'll be an emotional day.

“I'll probably get some stick, but, hopefully, the fans will remember the good things I've done, too. I have all that to deal with, to know that this is where it all started and that it might be the last time I grace that stadium as a player. It'll be in the back of my mind that it probably will be. The emotion might be running a bit high, but I'll be fine.”

Yorke is 36, his contract expires at the end of this season and there have been no discussions about an extension. While he believes he “can compete at this level for another season”, there have been offers to play in the United States and Australia, where he was enjoying an enviable lifestyle with Sydney FC before Keane tempted him to Wearside in 2006.

“When I first got the job, we had to make a statement and it was important for me that I got someone in like Yorkie who's been there and done it,” Keane said. “Nobody else in my dressing-room has that. I like Yorkie a lot. He does things his way, but you have to get your head round that and see what he brings to the party.”

Sunderland's alarming position near the foot of the table should quickly snap Yorke out of any sentiment. “It's a crucial game for us,” he said. “We have given ourselves a good fighting chance in terms of survival. I'm sure the manager has higher expectations, but the reality is the history of this club and you've got to take things like that into account. This team comes up and goes straight back down. It rarely stays up. At the start of the season, maybe we were thinking mid-table was realistic, but now we would take seventeenth and staying up.

“This club has got the whole package and a great set-up. I was stunned when I first arrived here. And, of course, the fans, the Mackems, are fanatical. I knew they were mad, but I didn't realise they were that mad. There is potential for the club to be massive. I don't see any reason why this club shouldn't be pushing for Europe.”