Manchester United star Marcus Rashford’s season has gone from bad to worse after the England international was omitted from Sunday’s 4-2 FA Cup victory at Newport.
The Red Devils were quick to try and control the narrative around Rashford’s absence saying he missed the game due to illness and that the issue was an “internal matter” that they would deal with.
“He reported ill,” manager Erik Ten Hag said after their FA Cup victory.
“The rest is (an) internal matter. I deal with it, we will deal with it.”
But United’s control of this story derailed quicker than their Champions Leaue hopes with images of Rashford in a Belfast nightclub doing the rounds on social media 24 hours before he missed training due to illness.
It’s fair to say the stories didn’t match up and cracks were starting to appear.
The Sun have since released an article with the headline reading: ‘Drinking all day! Downing tequila, falling into bed fully clothed then calling in sick to Man Utd… inside Marcus Rasfhord’s 12-hour bender’.
If The Sun's article is true, and it's a big if, it now makes a bit more sense that the 26-year-old striker reported ill the next day.
So where is Rashford at and is it time to start questioning his future at the Premier League powerhouse?
English football great Alan Shearer believes Rashford is wasting his talent and will have huge regrets come the end of his career if something doesn’t change.
“If it’s an internal matter, you’d think something is up,” Shearer told the BBC.
“There’s a huge talent in there with Marcus Rashford. We’ve seen him be disciplined last season when he was late to a meeting before a game, but something is clearly wrong – either at home or in his relationship with the football club.
“He can’t keep doing this, he can’t keep wasting his talent because it’s not right. He needs strong management, someone to get hold of him and tell him there’ll be huge regrets come the end of his career if he continues doing this.
“You can’t keep doing it, it needs sorting now. Thirty goals last season, four this season. When I see him play, it looks like he’s got the world on his shoulders so it needs sorting now because he can’t really deal with it.”
Manchester United have confirmed Rashford’s availability for when they travel to face Wolves on Friday.