The stars aligned for Marcus Rashford in February 2016. Wayne Rooney was injured, James Wilson and Ashley Fletcher were on loans at Brighton and Barnsley, Will Keane strained his groin at Shrewsbury on Monday night and Anthony Martial tweaked his hamstring in the warm-up against Midtjylland. Rashford was parachuted into the starting XI at 12 minutes' notice.
Joe Riley also made his full debut that evening and Regan Poole emerged for his sole senior United appearance. Three days later, Timothy Fosu-Mensah and James Weir debuted against Arsenal from a bench that featured two players who had broken double-figures for United starts - Adnan Januzaj and Paddy McNair.
Injury to Donald Love, who appeared in February defeats to Sunderland and Midtjylland, in the Under-21s' win at Middlesbrough the following night increased the United injury toll to 17 players: Rooney, Martial, Keane, Love, Sam Johnstone, Matteo Darmian, Ashley Young, Antonio Valencia, Chris Smalling, Axel Tuanzebe, Phil Jones, Luke Shaw, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, Marcos Rojo, Sean Goss, Marouane Fellaini, and Bastian Schweinsteiger.
