Ruben Amorim given free hand by Manchester United over Marcus Rashford

Ruben Amorim’s exclusion of Marcus Rashford from Manchester United’s past three match-day squads is solely his decision, with the head coach under no pressure from Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s football department to do so.

Rashford is for sale in the January transfer window, a decision approved by Ratcliffe, but it is understood the player’s demotion from the squad was purely Amorim’s decision.

The Portuguese again left the forward out of the game-day 20 for the 3-0 defeat by Bournemouth at Old Trafford on Sunday. This followed Rashford not being in the squad for the 4-3 Carabao Cup defeat at Tottenham on Thursday and the 2-1 victory at Manchester City the previous Sunday.

Amorim said after dropping the 27-year-old and Alejandro Garnacho for the City game: “It is important the performance in training, the performance in games, the way you dress, the way you eat, the way you engage with your teammates, the way you push your teammates.” Since then he described Rashford’s absence as being for “selection” reasons.

Rashford said in an interview with the journalist Henry Winter two days after the City game that he was “ready for a new challenge”. This was interpreted as the player wanting a move.

Despite Amorim’s cited reasons for leaving out the England international and informing him he will be reinstated if his training performance improves, it is unclear whether Rashford would be recalled.

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