Gareth Southgate insisted he has no problem with Marcus Rashford travelling to New York after dropping out of the England squad for the two Euro 2024 qualifiers.
The Manchester United forward was ruled out of action after picking up a knock in the Reds' FA cup victory over Fulham last weekend, with the 25-year-old coming off in the 83rd minute. He missed the 2-1 win over Italy on Thursday night and will be absent for the clash with Ukraine on Sunday.
Rashford, who has scored 27 goals in 44 matches this season, has missed five of England’s last six non-tournament internationals. While some people were surprised when the United ace posted a picture of himself on Instagram enjoying a break with his girlfriend in New York, Southgate has no issue with how we spends his time.
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Discussing Rashford's absence, the Three Lions boss said: "Once Marcus is ruled out of the squad, it’s entirely up to him how he spends his time. The players don’t get a lot of breaks and I’m sure some of them will be flying off after tomorrow’s game if they get 48 hours off with the schedule as it is.
"We are always linking with clubs on scans and assessments. There is also how every individual player feels, so there is a lot involved. I am always working with the players on what the best solution is for them. Of course, we always want the players and we always want to work with them as often as we can.
"In every squad we have, we always lose a couple. My focus then has to be on the group that are here, and how do we win the games?"
Rashford has been in scintillating form for Erik ten Hag's side this term, registering 36 goal contributions in 44 matches. Given the levels the forward has been playing at since the World Cup in Qatar, Southgate went on to admit that he was disappointed the 25-year-old couldn't be part of the group.
Southgate added: "Marcus is in good form and we’d love to have had him as an option for this camp - but we haven’t got him. We always make a judgement on how people are playing and he’s obviously played a lot for us. Marcus has over 50 caps now for England and close to 50 of those have been since I’ve been the manager.
"So I’ve known him a long time. I know what he’s capable of. It’s good to see him in the goalscoring form he’s in. There’s been a period in the last couple of years where he’s not been as hot as that and that’s been frustrating for everybody to see but he is in good form and we hope that can continue."
Meanwhile, Rashford's United teammate Luke Shaw opted to continue training with England ahead of the clash with Ukraine, despite being banned after being sent off in the win over defending European champions Italy.
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