Marcus Rashford is one of the most well-known players in the Premier League.

He has made 426 appearances for Manchester United and is 12th on the club’s all-time scoring list with 138 goals.

The 27-year-old has won both the FA Cup and EFL Cup twice. He has also won the Europa League. He has 60 England caps.

Off the pitch, he was awarded an MBE in 2021 for his work around child poverty.

But now his career is under a cloud amid a belief that his days at United are numbered after he was dropped for the Manchester derby.

On 18 July 2023 United confirmed Rashford had signed a new contract to 30 June 2028. It marked the end of a saga as Rashford’s previous deal was due to expire in 12 months and he had already been linked with a number of major European clubs.

The move made sense. Rashford had just scored a career-best 30 domestic goals during the 2022-23 season and was still only 25.

After three games without a goal, he scored the opener in what turned out to be a 3-1 defeat at Arsenal on 3 September.

He wasn’t to score for another 13 games as United’s slide under Erik ten Hag began.

In January Rashford was axed for an FA Cup trip to Newport County after missing training through illness after spending longer than planned on what had initially been an authorised trip to Belfast, getting pictured entering a nightclub where he drank tequila.

Although Rashford scored the first goal of Ruben Amorim’s reign after only 81 seconds at Ipswich on 24 November, the new United head coach admitted central striker was not the 27-year-old’s best position. Rashford started three and was a substitute for three of Amorim’s first six games in charge, though.

But, crucially, he was on the bench for the midweek Premier League trip to Arsenal and the home game that followed against Nottingham Forest on 7 December. He started in the Europa League against Vitoria Plzen on 12 December but was replaced after 56 minutes with United 1-0 down. They went on to win 2-1.

He was then dropped along with Alejandro Garnacho for the Manchester derby. After the game, Amorim explained why: “The performance in training, the way you eat, the way you push your team-mates – everything is important at the beginning of something. When people in your club are losing their jobs, we have to put the standards really high.”