Maguire says Rashford has shown true England spirit
HARRY Maguire has praised United team-mate Marcus Rashford for the ‘principles’ he showed by accepting a call-up to the England national side.
Rashford was controversially included in the England squad for this month’s internationals by Gareth Southgate despite having sat out of United’s last match through injury.
The 23-year-old suffered a foot injury during the Europa League clash against AC Milan at the San Siro, and was subsequently substituted at half-time for Paul Pogba who provided the match-winner.
Rashford then missed the Reds’ FA Cup exit away at Leicester last weekend, before reporting to St George’s Park with the rest of the national side.
The United forward missed the comfortable win over San Marino on Thursday through injury before he finally withdrew from the Three Lions squad on Friday.
Rashford’s call-up looked odd from the very start but now his club and country team-mate Maguire has explained why the forward accepted Southgate’s invitation in the first place.
“It’s a bit strange with everything that’s going on, with the pandemic,” Maguire said at a press conference ahead of England’s clash with Albania this afternoon.
“That shows a lot from Marcus, it was a little reminder of the way we work, the principles we’ve got.
“It’s really important to show the group is together and Marcus has come even though he probably knew in his mind he wasn’t going to be fit, it shows the spirit between the players.”