There is usually a reason behind a goal drought, and on Saturday night Sky Sports News supplied one. Marcus Rashford has been managing a hip injury since the World Cup, reporter Danyal Khan said, and the 28-year-old has been working to get himself right for Michael Carrick's Manchester United.
The injury explains a withdrawal nobody quite explained at the time
The detail that gives the report weight is September. Rashford dropped out of the England squad during that extended international break, and according to Sky it was this same hip problem that kept him out. At the time the withdrawal was filed under minor knock and forgotten about. Read it alongside Saturday's update and it looks like the visible part of something he has been carrying since the summer.
That matters because the tournament ended in July. A player quietly managing a hip through pre-season and into the opening months of a league campaign is a player who is training and playing at less than his best, even when he is available for selection.
No goal, no assist since Barcelona
Rashford has yet to register a goal or an assist for United since returning from his loan at Barcelona. He has, by Sky's reading of it, started well enough under Carrick in most other respects, which is the frustrating part: the work is there, the end product is not.
Carrick was asked about it before the trip to Elland Road and backed him to come through it. "Marcus has done a lot of good things," the United head coach said. "He had the slight injury where he had to pull out of England, and we've managed that a little bit. Again, he's doing some good things, and it's not quite getting that break, putting himself in good positions and having some good opportunities."
He added: "He had the one the other night where maybe he'd feel he could have done better with. He's in there to make a difference. If you keep doing the right things, you get the rewards in the end. As long as he keeps doing that, he'll be okay."
What it means for Sunday and beyond
United travel to Leeds on Sunday with Lisandro Martinez back in the squad after a week in which Carrick said the situation around the defender had been dealt with and the club had moved on. Rashford's availability is less of a question than his sharpness, and a forward who has been managing the same complaint since June is not going to find that overnight.
The honest view is that this is not a crisis, but it is not nothing either. Carrick has backed the process rather than promised a quick fix, which is probably the right call. A hip that has needed managing for four months tends to need managing for a while longer.
Transfer and injury context: Marcus Rashford, 28, forward, Manchester United. Returned from a loan spell at Barcelona and is yet to score or assist for United since. Missed England's squad in September's extended international break with the hip issue. Reported by Sky Sports News on 17 October 2026. United away at Leeds on Sunday 18 October.
0 Comments