The news of Marcus Rashford's withdrawal from the England squad on Monday was met with cautious optimism from the Newcastle United fan base. The Magpies, who are spending the international break in Dubai for a warm weather training camp, will come up against the striker's Manchester United when domestic football returns in April.
Rashford, the Red Devils' top scorer this term, has been in fine form of late and found the net against Newcastle when the two sides met at Wembley for the Carabao Cup final in February. He is said to have picked up a knock in the 3-1 win over Fulham on Sunday.
His injury-inspired absence at St James' Park next month would be a huge boost for Newcastle as they seek to continue their winning run. However, it may be worth holding fire on the positivity if you're a member of the Geordie faithful.
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This isn't the first time a Manchester United player has pulled out of international duty, at the last minute, with a vague, minor issue. Sir Alex Ferguson made a habit of stopping his players from playing for their country when he was the man in the Old Trafford hot seat.
Ferguson made no secret of his dislike of international games in the middle of a season. And the Scot conveniently met with current Man United boss Erik ten Hag for dinner last month, prompting some fans of the club to speculate as to whether Rashford's withdrawal was planned.
"I think international football interferes with the clubs' ambitions," Ferguson said over a decade ago. "They play a friendly game, which they've been doing for the last decade, on the Wednesday before the start of the season.
"You tell me the sense of that? So it doesn't matter what way we look at it, club managers are always in disagreement with international football, particularly with friendlies."
Former Man United star Rio Ferdinand has also previously spoken of Ferguson's personal threats to players if they played too many minutes during a break with the national side.
"You’d be going away, you’d finish a game on Saturday, you’d win a game on Saturday, and he’d go, 'Right, I’ll see you after the international break boys'," the ex-defender said.
"And he’ll go like, 'You, you and you, if you play more than 45 minutes I’m going to kill you when you get back'. So it would be in the back of your mind, you’d be thinking, 'Oh my god, I’m under pressure when I come back'."
Sven-Goran Eriksson, who coached arguably England's golden generation, never earned success with the Three Lions and has previously discussed being told in no uncertain terms not to call-up Ferguson's go-to striker, Wayne Rooney.
"Sir Alex did not want Rooney to go. He told me very, very straight: 'You don't take him, that's it Sven, I am going to kill you!'" the Swede said in recent years. "I told him, Sir Alex, go on holiday, I am going to take Rooney and we are going to the World Cup. Sorry. And that was it [mimics hanging up the phone]!"
Rashford is currently facing a race against time to be fit for the Newcastle showdown in April, along with Magpies shot-stopper Nick Pope. Though it wouldn't be too much of a shock if the England forward starts on Tyneside.
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