Marcus Rashford is back on Manchester United\u2019s books, and the timing has brought fresh focus on how long it has been since he last played for the club. Barcelona allowed both the purchase option and release clause in Rashford\u2019s contract to expire, opting instead to move for Anthony Gordon and Karim Adeyemi. United manager Michael Carrick has since confirmed that the winger will rejoin training with his boyhood club during the next part of the summer tour of northern Europe.<\/p>\n
Carrick, speaking after Saturday\u2019s 1-1 draw with Paris Saint-Germain, said: \u201cI\u2019ve played with him. I played in the game he made his debut, so we have a history,\u201d Carrick said after Saturday\u2019s 1\u20131 draw with Paris Saint-Germain. \u201cWe have got a full squad this week in Dublin. We fly straight there and have a few days where we have the whole group back together.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarcus is part of that, and Kobbie [Mainoo] and Lisandro [Mart\u00ednez]. We look forward to seeing them.\u201d<\/p>\n
For supporters, Rashford\u2019s return may take some adjustment, because his final appearance for United came some time ago. His most recent outing arrived against Viktoria Plze\u0148 on Dec. 12, 2024, in the Europa League at the Doosan Arena in Plze\u0148, Czechia. He started as a second striker, positioned just behind Joshua Zirkzee, but found it difficult to influence the contest.<\/p>\n
Rashford was withdrawn in the 56th minute, eight minutes after Plze\u0148 had gone in front through Mat\u011bj Vydra. United then recovered, with Rasmus H\u00f8jlund emerging as the decisive figure. The Danish forward, who has since left United for Napoli, scored soon after his introduction and added a second in the 88th minute to complete the comeback.<\/p>\n
After that defeat, Rashford\u2019s United career effectively stalled under then-manager Ruben Amorim. He was omitted from the squad for the Manchester derby against Manchester City three days later, although Amorim insisted the decision was not disciplinary. Rashford then stated that he was \u201cready for a new challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
His absence continued for weeks, with more than 10 games missed and only one unused place on the bench. Amorim later said he would not choose any player unless he felt they were giving maximum effort every day.<\/p>\n
A loan move to Aston Villa followed in February, giving Rashford a chance to reset. He produced a strong spell there, finishing with four goals and six assists in 17 appearances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rashford is back at United, and his last appearance came in December 2024 against Viktoria Plze\u0148.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1017,1083],"tags":[180,1980,182],"class_list":["post-18355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barcelona","category-man-utd","tag-player-news","tag-pre-season","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}