CONFIRMED: RASHFORD STEPS UP HIS REHABILITATION

The club can confirm that Marcus Rashford has been cleared to step up his rehabilitation programme following encouraging signs on his latest scans. His progress will continue to be monitored by the club’s medical team throughout the current lockdown period.

The Academy graduate and this season’s top scorer so far has not played since 15 January, due to a serious back injury he sustained in the Emirates FA Cup victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Rashford had been working hard on his rehabilitation with medical staff at the Aon Training Complex, before the coronavirus pandemic forced all of the Reds to work individually at home.

However, as Marcus explained in an interview with Sky Sports at the weekend, his progress has not been affected and the 22-year-old was happy to report he is growing stronger.

“I feel much better,” said Rashford, who had scored 19 goals from 31 appearances before his injury. “Definitely, comparing it to two or three weeks ago, I feel 10 times better.

“For me now, it is just about getting ready to build it back up to training and playing the games with the team. I am in a much better place. I am much happier now than I was about a month ago, so things are looking positive.”

With all matches postponed until at least 30 April, in light of the COVID-19 outbreak, United’s players are all training away from club facilities with guidance from the coaching staff.

Rashford is taking the unprecedented situation in his stride and, due to his injury, admits nothing much has changed for him on a personal level.

“Everyone's just dealing with the circumstances as well as they can,” said Marcus over the weekend. “I have just been in my house, doing my recovery work, reading books, watching Netflix and just whatever you can do to make the time pass.

“There is not really anything that comes close to that feeling of being in the changing room, in the team, in my opinion, so to be honest I am not trying to chase that high.

“I had to have time off anyway and relax because of my injury. I am fortunate enough to have a bike in the gym downstairs so not much in that sense has actually changed for me, because I can still do the daily routine that I was doing.”

When Rashford is not working on his rehabilitation, the homegrown hero has been helping those who are less fortunate by raising £100,000 for a charity called Fare Share, specifically to get food to children who usually rely on free school meals.

“I didn't know how high the numbers were for kids who weren't eating at home, other than school meals,” explained Marcus. “That number kind of shocked me and I remember speaking to one of my friends, who was saying there was an opportunity where we can help these people.

“Starting up with Fair Share was something that I haven't done on such short notice before. We pretty much had the idea and they allowed us to make it work, so we thought 'let's try to get to £100,000'. That would allow us to feed 400,000 kids so it has a massive impact.”

*Article updated at 14:55 GMT.