Although he’s now firmly established as a first-team star for Manchester United, one player has explained how he didn’t feel comfortable during his first forays into the senior side.
Marcus Rashford took almost every opportunity presented to him as he made his mark amongst his peers, but in a chat with tennis legend Andy Murray on Facebook, cited by the Daily Mirror, the striker admitted to nerves.
“A couple of months before my debut I was on the bench and at that moment I didn’t feel ready,” he said.
“I didn’t feel like I belonged in the first team. I wasn’t ready to play that game. At the beginning it’s just football, football, football and you rarely speak to your teammates a lot.
“But when you settle into the team you get to speak about other stuff. I knew that most of them had been through the experiences themselves.
“They’ve lived it and know how to deal with, so I definitely used to ask questions about what to do next.”
Having since worked through those initial concerns, when he’s not injured Rashford is arguably one of the first names on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team sheet.
His confidence in front of goal has seen him become a regular scorer and a real handful for defenders.
It’s form that he’s replicated for the national side, where he leads the line with as much aplomb as he does for the Red Devils, and his capacity for improvement and for learning the striker’s craft can only bode well for both the Old Trafford outfit and the national team.