Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has admitted that he is shocked by the news that Marcus Rashford is considering his future at Old Trafford.
The Manchester Evening News reported on Monday that the United academy graduate is understood to be debating his future at the club after being left out of the starting line-up against Manchester City on Sunday. With Cristiano Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani both unavailable, Rashford looked set to be a shoe-in up front.
However, interim manager Ralf Rangnick elected to deploy Bruno Fernandes in a false-nine role, with Anthony Elanga and Jadon Sancho providing the Portuguese international with support from out wide. The approach appeared to be working in the first-half, with United both competitive and encouraging.
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However, they were outclassed in every department by City after the break and failed to lay a glove on their neighbours. Rashford stepped off the bench to replace Paul Pogba with 64 minutes on the clock but failed to have any sort of impact on the game.
It is understood his omission from the starting line-up is what has forced him to think about his future at United. He is out-of-contract in the summer of 2023 but United have the option to extend by an additional year.
Ferdinand was stunned by the news, and cannot understand that Rashford is considering his future when he is struggling for form so much. He told Vibe with Five : "That's thrown me, I've got to be honest. If that's real, I can't believe it's real.
"You can only talk like that when you're playing well. You can only talk like that when you're putting in performances and banging balls in the back of the net on a consistent basis — and Marcus isn't doing that right now. He hasn't played well for a while now.
"He doesn't look happy at United, I've got to be honest. I watch Marcus and I feel like he has got the weight of the world on his shoulders.
"He doesn't look happy and I don't know what it is. The Marcus Rashford that came in... that is Man United. When he blazed through, he came in and you thought 'oh my God, this is another product off that youth team conveyor belt coming through with energy, with spark, with quality, with class, aggression and a work ethic'.
"Those things I have mentioned just there are not what I am seeing with Marcus right now and I think if he was brutally honest with himself, I think he would admit that he hasn't been on it.
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"I don't know where that information has come from, but I hope it hasn't come from Marcus' camp, because I would be embarrassed if that was my camp if I was I player and wasn't scoring, which is my job.
"To be looking at his future and assessing his future, especially with the climate that we are in now with Man United, with the club struggling, being at a low-ebb, lacking confidence and being called out for how bad they are, to be looking at your future, you have to be playing well before talking like that, I'm sorry."
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