MARCUS BUILDS ENGLAND

Newly-honoured Rashford is a credit to his country – on and off the pitch

IF there is one Project Big Picture football should embrace, it is the work of Marcus Rashford.

Devoid of self-interest, its target only to help those in the greatest need, without wanting anything in return.

Actually, Rashford has received something, an MBE, but that will not weaken hi s tireless work in trying to end child food poverty.

Nor wi l l th e few idiots who suggest he should ‘stick to football’ or those who, without any justification, wonder if all his campaigning and fundraising might affect his game.

Rashford’s professionalism is b e y o n d q u e st i o n , a s k Gare t h Southgate or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

But it is simply that when he has some downtime, the Manchester United and England striker tends to use it to pursue his quest to make sure no child in this country goes hungry. And that is because he is still horrified that kids can go without food here.

“Every single day it shocks me,” said Rashford, who wore a pair of sp e c i al ly - d e si g n e d Ni ke b o o t s (above) against Belgium, adorned with messages from kids he’d helped in food poverty.

“It’s not until people see the numbers. It’s just mind-blowing the amount of people who are suffering and the amount of people who don’t know where to get the help. There’s a lot of things that would shock a lot of people if they knew the facts about the issue.

“I’ve had the chance to visit some of th e families and hear how it’s affected them and changed their lives.”

At a time when Southgate has had to deal with a number of Covid rulebreakers, and when some of his young players have let him down, 22-year-old Rashford is a shining light in the Three Lions camp. But he is also part of a generation of footballers – Raheem Sterling and Danny Rose spring to mind – who are unafraid to speak up about issues away from the field. Rashford said: “You mentioned those players’ names and there are more people speaking out on issues they feel strongly about.

“It definitely gives you the element of freedom to speak about things that are important to you.

“That’s actually how everything first started for me – just speaking on something I thought was right. I don’t think players should feel bad about doing that. It’s becoming more and more important, and the more people do that, the more we can help and we can affect.”

Rashford will start against

Denmark (England stars in training, left; Kalvin Phillips in the gym, below), looking to follow up on his penalty against Belgium and good form in that game. And with matches for country and club coming thick and fast, he has months of charity work pre-planning to help him out.

He explained: “In the beginning, I had a back injury, so I couldn’t do any exercise, and I’ve always struggled when I don’t have anything to work towards. So I just thought, let me have another go at an issue that I’d tried to start tackling a few years ago.

“So, I had more of an input than I do now. Now it’s about keeping momentum. A lot of the work being done now is pre-planned a few months ago, and I obviously need to concentrate on my football and winning games.”

Not that he will be scaling back his unstinting efforts to make sure the nation’s underprivileged children and families are provided with healthy meals.

“I can only look forward and see if we can keep finding ways to make things that bit easier for individuals,” he added.

Now that is one Project Big Picture we can all get behind.