Gary Neville reveals how Sir Alex Ferguson would deal with Marcus Rashford issue at Manchester United

Gary Neville believes Marcus Rashford would have received a ‘dressing down’ from Sir Alex Ferguson if he missed Manchester United training after a night out.

Rashford has been the subject of an ‘internal disciplinary matter’ at United this week after he missed a training session last Friday due to ‘illness’ but was seen in a nightclub in Belfast on Thursday evening.

The 26-year-old has struggled for form this season, scoring just four goals in the Premier League for United.

United manager Erik ten Hag has refused to publicly criticise Rashford for his latest incident, and Neville believes the England international needs to improve the timing of his nights out.

‘Well, that happened quite a bit when I was at the club where there were many of us, 20 odd, in a dressing room, young men,’ Neville said on BBC Breakfast.

‘To me, going out for a drink or a night out is something every football player should and will do, so I’ve got absolutely no problem with that whatsoever. They need to enjoy themselves.

‘But it’s all about choices and timing and I said after the Manchester City game at home. We got beat at home against City and he went out that night to Chinawhite, I think it was his birthday.

‘Then they had a game against Newcastle on the Wednesday in the Carabao Cup after that and I just said, ‘look, choose your time’. Manchester United had just had a winter break and a few weeks off, so that was a better moment for him to choose to go out. I would say go out, have your moment where you relax with your friends but your timing has got to be right.

Asked how Ferguson would have handled the situation, Neville replied: ‘He would have given him a dressing down but he would have said similar things, make sure you do it at the right moments, at the right time, nobody ever says to a football player you can’t go out but obviously when you’ve got a game three days later.

‘Marcus himself knows, he’s an experienced player now and he’s done this a couple of times in the last few months. I’ve always seen Marcus as being really responsible, professional and someone who works hard every day. He’s going through a dip in form in this moment in time but it’s happened once or twice and it sometimes can become your personality if you’re not careful.

‘If you do it too many times, people can start to say, ‘what’s happening in his life?’, so he just needs to relax, calm down, choose when to go out and get back to playing football at the levels which we know he can.’

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