Jose Mourinho urges Gareth Southgate to take Marcus Rashford to World Cup despite not picking him for United

Jose Mourinho has challenged England manager Gareth Southgate to take Marcus Rashford to the World Cup if he "trusts" him, even if the Manchester United youngster is not playing regularly at club level.

Rashford is yet to make a Premier League start for United in 2018, having last played from the off in Boxing Day’s 2-2 draw with Burnley at Old Trafford.

The 20-year-old’s four league appearances since the turn of the year have all come from the bench and account for just 52 minutes of football, while Rashford was given just quarter of an hour to impress during last month’s Champions League knock-out meeting with Sevilla.

Though Mourinho has trusted the youngster with starts against Derby County and Yeovil Town in the FA Cup, it appears as though Rashford has fallen down the Old Trafford pecking order following Alexis Sanchez’s arrival from Arsenal in January.

Southgate played Rashford in all but one of England’s World Cup qualifiers and is understood to be concerned by his lack of regular minutes at club level ahead of this summer’s tournament in Russia.

The England manager visited United’s training ground at Carrington on Friday to speak with Scott McTominay, the young midfielder who has England and Scotland vying for his international allegiance, and may well have used the opportunity to approach Mourinho about Rashford too.

Mourinho, however, believes Southgate should pay little attention to Rashford’s lack of time out on the pitch if he “trusts” him as a player and compared the youngster’s situation to that of United’s second-choice goalkeeper Sergio Romero.

“The main reassurance for [Rashford] is that he is always selected. There is not one single match when Marcus is not selected to start or to be on the bench,” the United manager said.

“I see you sometimes put in doubt if he is going to be selected for the World Cup or not be selected. You know, if the national coach trusts him, he selects him. It doesn’t matter if he plays or doesn’t play.”

Mourinho added: “There are many examples of players who don’t play for their clubs at all and they go to the national teams. You have the example of Romero, who is the second goalkeeper at Manchester United and the first goalkeeper for such an amazing football country like Argentina.

“In your own country, you have examples of players who play even without scoring a goal in the Premier League. So it’s up to Gareth Southgate. If he trusts him, he selects him. It doesn’t matter if he plays or if he doesn’t play for Manchester United.”

Mourinho also claimed that Rashford, as a 20-year-old, was earning “more than enough” experience for his age and suggested that his sudden, meteoric rise to United’s first team two years ago has skewed expectations around him.

“At his age, what he’s doing is more than enough and the experience he’s getting at every level is more than enough for us to be happy with what we think is going to be his future/ It’s as simple as that,” Mourinho said.

“Because he had such an impact at the beginning, probably people expect him to play even more than he does, and score even more than he does and perform even more than what he does but it is not so simple.

“What I see makes me really happy, to see the same boy. When you ask me about McTominay, I spoke about McTominay as a boy before he was a player and Marcus is the same. What will keep them in the right direction, what will make them have that stability to improve is what they are as boys.

With Zlatan Ibrahimovic currently struggling with the after-effects of a serious knee injury and unfit to play, Rashford is arguably Mourinho’s only cover for lone striker Romelu Lukaku and the United manager assured the youngster that he would be given more chances to impress.

“Marcus is a fantastic boy, also very grounded. For sure, we love him and we believe in him, and he’s going to have the chances.”

“The good thing with Marcus is that he can play in the three attacking positions, so even when he doesn’t start, to have him on the bench is such a security for me and for the team.”