ALL OVER HIM LIKE A RASH Southgate puts star in Kane class

GARETH SOUTHGATE says Marcus Rashford won’t crack when the pressure bites at the World Cup this summer.

Three Lions boss Southgate believes that, on the big stage, mentality is as important as talent — and he reckons Rashford is like the young Harry Kane on that score.

Southgate is sweating over Kane’s fitness, after the Tottenham striker was ruled out until late April following a knee ligament injury at Bournemouth last week.

If Kane’s recovery doesn’t go smoothly, Rashford could be forced to lead England’s attack in Russia.

But if the worst happened with Kane (below, right), Southgate would have no hesitation in relying on Rashford at the World Cup – because he continues to be impressed by the 20-year-old’s temperament, desire and attitude.

Southgate watched Rashford terrorise Liverpool’s defenders in Manchester United’s 2-1 win at Old Trafford, and he believes the youngster has the X factor to be a game-changer in Russia.

Southgate said: “Marcus is a player we believe in.

“I worked with him briefly in the Under-21s and we saw things that we’ve seen in the other Under-21s who have moved up to the senior team and done extremely well.

“Also, for me, the big thing about him — and several of the others that we’re talking about — is his mentality.

“He’s a player who believes in himself on the big stage, he’s committed to his job and he respects his sport in the way he trains and in his professionalism. He always wants to get better in some area of his game, or physically.

“So he’s got a top mentality — which is what we saw in Harry Kane at that same age as well.

“Marcus is mentally tough. The kids that are brought up at Manchester United are brought up to have to play in front of 70,000 people, so the big games don’t tend to faze them.

“That is part of the deal with playing for England. And getting the players ready for that is part of the process we have to go through.

“We have to work on being able to deal with that, but also to select those that are mentally tough enough to handle that — and Marcus has shown he can deal with that.

“If you’re going to be an England player or you’re going to work with England, then you’ve got to have that mental resilience to be able to perform when the excitement and the spotlight increases. So that’s a big part of our criteria on selecting those people.” Despite the perception that Rashford has been used sparingly by Jose Mourinho, the youngster has actually played in 41 of United’s 45 games so far this season. But Southgate is confident he’ll be fresh enough to deliver the goods in Russia.

The England boss added: “He’s maybe played more than you’d think because of the amount of cup competitions — so he’s actually racked up a lot of minutes.

“With all young players there’s a balance.

“You want them to play in games to improve, you want them to experience things, but Jose is working with him every day too.

“He will have a feel of when are the moments to unleash him and when are the moments that we’ve got to rein him back a bit, to get him physically to the place we want.

“Over the last couple of games he’s looked fresh and it’s the right moment to put him back in.”