He may have loftier goals but it’s time for Marcus to start scoring again
Is football Marcus Rashford’s priority anymore? It is a question which can legitimately be asked as he prepares to make his Manchester United return this weekend. So much has happened to him – and because of him – since he assumed the mantle of conscience to the nation that the essentially escapist act of kicking a ball must have been placed into some sort of perspective.
When you talk about goals, ensuring the country’s children are fed and have a fair chance at life are about as big and important as they get. The football type? Well, it is fun to score those too but they’re not quite the same are they?
Already an MBE for his campaigning against child poverty, he became the youngest person in history to receive an honorary doctorate from Manchester University last week. He is also a bestselling author and the face of Google.
Rashford has a strong support team who ensure none of his extracurricular stuff encroaches on the football – or, of late, the rehab. The workload is not the issue. The question Rashford has to answer is whether the passion remains as deep for the day job.
There was a marked drop-off in his performances as last season wore on with just three goals in his last 18 appearances for United, including a blank in Gdansk where he missed a golden chance in the Europa League final defeat by Villarreal.
The last sighting of him on a field was in tears at Wembley after his shootout miss in the Euros final.
The reaction to the racial abuse which came his way afterwards summed up where he stood in the hearts of the nation. The Rashford mural in Withington became a shrine.
Yet the truism that a player is only as good as his last game applies to a saint as much as a sinner.
The 2021 slump can be explained by the injuries he was carrying to his shoulder and foot. But, fully recovered after post-Euros surgery, there will be no such excuse this time around.
He returns to a different picture at Old Trafford. The additions of Cristiano Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho mean Rashford will have to work harder for a start.
Likewise with England. Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling may have been ineffectual against Hungary in midweek but are mainstays of Gareth Southgate’s operation and the manager has many alternatives, particularly in the wide furrow Rashford formerly ploughed. Rashford has achieved plenty in his short career – he has already scored 100 goals for club and country – but now has to prove himself all over again.
He turns 24 later this month and can achieve so much but only if the fires still burn as they once did. The exposure to a wider – and in many ways more fulfilling – world is a complicating factor for him.
But it was through his football that Rashford developed the profile to make such an impact in the first place. To continue to maximise his impact off the pitch, he needs to play – and play well – for club and country.
His twin passions need not be mutually exclusive. Just the opposite, in fact.