Harry Maguire has revealed that the Manchester United dressing room wants Marcus Rashford to remain at the club this season, following the forward's return to the first-team fold. Rashford made his first appearance for United in 20 months on Saturday, coming off the bench for the final 30 minutes of the 4-2 friendly loss to AC Milan in Wroclaw.
Rashford's return after 18 months on loan
Rashford's career at United appeared to be over last summer when he was frozen out by Ruben Amorim. He had not played for his boyhood club since December 2024, having spent the last 18 months on loan. Barcelona had the chance to make his Nou Camp stint permanent but rejected the opportunity to sign him for £26million.
Michael Carrick extended an olive branch to Rashford this summer, and the forward rejoined his team-mates in training in Ireland at the beginning of the week before featuring against Milan. With a fortnight of the transfer window remaining, it is still feasible the 28-year-old will depart, yet Maguire insisted the squad believe he has plenty to contribute.
Maguire: 'He can improve us, for sure'
"He can improve us, for sure," said Maguire. "I think when you seen when he come on, he threatens the back line really well. He could have even scored for us."
"He's a huge threat to have in your team. So if he's going to stay with us, obviously the transfer window is still open, but we hope as players that he stays and he's a big asset to have."
"I've played with Marcus for numerous years and I know that playing against him, playing with him in training is going to help us."
New signings and pre-season progress
Rashford sported a different squad number in Wroclaw, donning the No.9, though United were eager to emphasise this was merely temporary. Transfer activity has quietened down lately, but midfield pairing Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans started together in Wroclaw, and Maguire has been thrilled with their impact during pre-season.
"I think they're going to have a big impact because I think they're both at different ages," he said. "I think Andrey's obviously got loads to learn, he's got loads to improve and he's going to do that."
"Youri now is an age where he should come straight into the team, he doesn't need to adapt. It should help us out straight away and I'm sure he's expecting that from himself as well. So two great signings and we're happy to have them."
United wrapped up their pre-season schedule with the loss to Milan but have enjoyed substantial training periods and contested six matches heading into the start of their competitive fixtures. Maguire was a contentious omission from Thomas Tuchel's World Cup squad and instead savoured a break before spending a complete pre-season with his club.
"I think it's been a really pleasing pre-season, no doubt about it," he said. "I think we've seen, we've had lots of good performances. Individually, I'm feeling in a good place going into the Premier League next week."
"And I think we're wanting to play much further up the pitch, we want to play more aggressive, more on the front foot. Like I said, today was the only game probably where I didn't feel like we did ourselves justice in that aspect."
"We had a lot of high regains and a lot of chances created from that, but we didn't sustain our pressure anywhere near good enough."
"But that's again, it's something that, it's not going to be perfect, it's something that we're going to need to work on. Next week's the one that's counting and I'm sure we're going to be ready."
