Marcus Rashford has reaffirmed his commitment to national duty as England take on Malta and North Macedonia in Euro 2024 qualifiers. Back in March, Rashford had to withdraw from the England squad due to an injury. However, an ill-timed trip to New York received backlash and his commitment to England was criticised.
Rashford had a career-best campaign this season under Erik Ten Hag as he scored 30 goals across all competitions. The 25-year-old has come out to reiterate his commitment to his country.
Asked about the effects of such comments, Rashford told reporters on Wednesday: “Honestly it doesn’t [hurt]. I know I am committed 100 per cent so people are going to say what they want to say. I didn’t see it [the criticism] to be honest until I got home. But I need time to switch off and recover so I took a short trip – four days – and then went back to do rehab and try to get ready as soon as possible. With these injuries, you can’t predict when they are going to happen. Thankfully I have very few muscle strains but occasionally you do get impact injuries.”
He added: “It is mad that at club level we are playing against clubs playing one game a week and we are playing three a week from November until we get knocked out of the Europa League. In the earlier stages of my career I couldn’t make sense of it. I know some managers have spoken out against it. I don’t think it is correct. I think we need to be given more time to recover from different games and at different times of the season. I don’t think it is down to the players, we shouldn’t have to speak out.”
