Ole Gunnar Solskjær has admitted he has “fingers crossed” regarding Marcus Rashford’s shoulder problem, with the injury preventing Manchester United’s top scorer from completing most games.
Since suffering the injury in the win at Everton on 7 November, Rashford has been forced to pull out of the England squad and completed only one full 90 minutes – last Sunday’s victory at Southampton.
The 22-year-old’s goal in Wednesday’s Champions League loss to Paris Saint-Germain was a ninth of the season, making him the joint-highest scorer with Bruno Fernandes, yet he was again unable to finish the match.
Asked about Rashford’s shoulder, Solskjær said: “Marcus, he’ll run through a brick wall for you and that’s the type of lad he is. We’ve just got to be fingers crossed it doesn’t get worse because at the moment it is still manageable. How serious is it? At the moment he’s getting that tiredness towards the end or that soreness towards the end that stops him from completing the games.
“Hopefully it won’t take too long to completely go away. Of course, you think about how you manage these players throughout the whole season anyway.”
Solskjær denied Anthony Martial’s confidence had been dented by Edinson Cavani’s signing, the manager moving the Frenchman from being the central striker to a wide position against PSG to accommodate the 33-year-old.
“Confidence-wise, Edinson coming in is a boost for the whole team and Edinson speaks really good French as well – I’ve seen Anthony and Edinson getting on really well,” he said. “The sending-off [versus Tottenham] stopped his season a little bit because he was just getting going, I felt.
“We are very happy with his contribution. On Wednesday night everyone points to the one chance he misses but what about the chances he set up? His overall contribution to the team, his cleverness, even his defending is improving.
“As a striker you’re measured by goals. As soon as you get one, if it’s off his backside or back of his head or heel it doesn’t matter. He’ll get going, Anthony, I’m not worried about that.”
