Although trending in the news in the days since England’s loss to Italy at the final of the Euro 2020 competition due to his unfortunate penalty miss, Marcus Rashford is in the news for a reason that is not about racist slurs, mural defacement or the encouraging messages of support that have come his way since Sunday’s final.
The Manchester United forward will be going under the knife for a surgical procedure to deal with a persistent shoulder problem that has dogged his football to keep it from escalating further. As a consequence, Rashford is set to miss the opening couple of months of the season at Old Trafford and the Three Lions.
As THEWILL reported in April, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer knew the difference Rashford’s inclusion in the team made and though the England international had pain from the hurting shoulder, Rashford continued to feature for the Red Devils and score crucial goals that took them to the final of the 2020/2021 UEFA Europa League.
However, in the aftermath of Sunday’s final, the 23-year-old underwent a scan on Tuesday which revealed that the problem had worsened and Rashford agreed to the necessity of a surgery to arrest the deterioration and act as a long-term fix.
The procedure will keep him away from active football for up to anywhere between six to eight weeks. If the procedure takes place at the end of the month as scheduled, he would likely be sidelined until October this year, at the earliest.
The implication is that he will be unavailable for the Red Devils, whose premiership campaign begins with a Matchday 1 fixture at Old Trafford against Leeds, until after their initial seven games of the fresh season. As United are in Europe for the season, Rashford’s absence will be felt in the UCL’s pair of opening games.
Internationally, English fans will also have no Rashford to taunt or hail for two World Cup qualifiers against Hungary, two against Andorra and another pair of games against Poland in September and October respectively.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
