No Quick Decision On Marcus Rashford

 

England interim manager Gareth Southgate is adamant he will not rush into a decision over Marcus Rashford being involved in the European U21 Championship next summer. Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has doubts over whether Rashford should feature in the tournament in Poland but Southgate wants to see how the player performs throughout the season.

Southgate gave Rashford his U21 debut in September when he scored a hat-trick in a 6-1 win over Norway and then selected him for his first senior squad in October after Sam Allardyce was dismissed. Rashford now has five senior caps for England and has scored one goal, but Southgate insists it is too early to think about the situation.

He said “It's always a case of what's right for the individual player, that's why you can't make decisions on players at this stage of the season. You have an idea what you think is the ideal pathway for an international young player but you have to bear in mind the season they have and where they are in terms of being involved in the senior team. It's a scenario we went through two years ago but there is a point where young players are still viewed as being part of the development teams. There's also a point where we have to decide if they are still in development teams and is that going to benefit them or have they moved through it? As we have seen in the last couple of months Marcus is between the two. We have to wait and see what it looks like as we move forward. Everything looking forward is hypothetical, I can only talk more generally, we always try to view what's right for the individual and what experience we'd like them to have to prepare them to go into the senior team and be successful.”