Revealed: The alleged reason Marcus Rashford was dropped by Ruben Amorim before extended Man Utd exile with wantaway attacker punished for rule break

After scoring three times in Ruben Amorim's first two Premier League games in charge, Rashford only appeared off the bench in defeats to Arsenal and Nottingham Forest, before being dropped from matchday squads altogether against Manchester City, Bournemouth and Wolves, as well as Tottenham in the Carabao Cup.

A report from The Athletic notes that claims of Rashford going out the Friday night before the derby game on the Sunday reached Amorim. His training performance the day after his alleged night out, which was denied by Rashford's camp, was described as "lacklustre". Some who saw it spoke of apparent "fatigue".

Rashford's general training performances don't appear to have impressed Amorim, who made the decision to leave No.10 out of the squad that eventually sprung a surprise by beating City at the Etihad Stadium. The head coach wanted to try "something different" to "jolt" Rashford. Training has been "mixed" and the player has missed several days, sanctioned by the club, due to illness over the past few weeks. He was was missing from training for that reason before attending his former primary school to hand out gifts to children, also giving an interview to journalist Henry Winter while there, confirming his readiness to take on a "new challenge".

Even though his attitude has been questioned, the stats this season reveal that Rashford is running more than usual, an average of 10.2km per game compared to 9.97km last season and 9.57km in 2022-23, per Opta. Sprints per 90 minutes are also up, now exceeding an average of 21 per game.

Having come back into the matchday squad against Newcastle, Rashford is again expected to be absent from Sunday's short trip to Premier League leaders Liverpool. He has not trained this week in the build-up due to more illness. Beyond that, his uncertain future at Manchester United is an increasingly major talking point, but the club may struggle to find a taker for a player who has struggled for form over a prolonged period and whose contract pays him a basic weekly salary of £325,000 (when it hasn't been cut by Champions League-related clauses).