Marcus Rashford is reportedly set to undergo shoulder surgery which could see him miss the first two months of the new Premier League season.
The Manchester United attacker has been enduring a long-standing shoulder issue and while an operation is not considered a necessity at this stage, it could help to prevent more issues in the future.
The England international has been dealing with a shoulder problem since last November, playing with pain-killing injections during the 2020/21 campaign.
According to the Telegraph, Rashford will have to wait until the end of this month to have the surgery, which is an unfortunate delay for the Man Utd man.
The operation should result in around 12 weeks in total on the sidelines for the 23-year-old.
Rashford made 37 Premier League appearances last term, scoring 11 and assisting 11 in a stellar campaign.
He also made five appearances at Euro 2020 for England as they reached the final.
The Three Lions lost the final to Italy on penalties and the United forward was one of three players to fail to score in the shoot-out alongside Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka. All three have since suffered racist abuse on social media.
The 23-year-old, whose mural in Withington was defaced after his penalty miss before being covered in supportive notes, vowed that he ‘will never apologise’ for who he is on Monday.
United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has faith that Marcus Rashford will “put his hand up” and step forward for penalties in the future despite his Euros heartache.
Solskjaer told United’s official website: “You know the thing is when you step up to take a penalty, I think you’ve already won. You’ve taken on the responsibility and I’m sure many of the players are hoping I don’t want to take a penalty.
“So I think it’s a great character trait to step up and say I will deal with it, [and] the consequences. You might be the hero or the one who misses. That’s football.
“You learn from it and definitely come back stronger. I’ve not seen many people, at this club anyway, who lay down and say I’ll not take a penalty anymore.
“I know Marcus is going to put his hand up and say he wants to take one for us.”