OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER admitted his gamble with Marcus Rashford “backfired” after the Manchester United striker was crocked.
Second-half sub Rashford lasted just 15 MINUTES of this FA Cup replay due to a recurrence of a back injury.
Marcus Rashford limped off at Old Trafford as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted his decision to play him ‘backfired’
Rashford was involved in a heavy collision just ten minutes after coming on
Juan Mata’s clever 67th- minute chip set up a fourth-round clash against Watford or Tranmere. But United’s 19-goal top-scorer Rash, who replaced Dan James on 64 minutes, is now a major doubt for Sunday’s league trip to
bitter rivals Liverpool.
Boss Ole confessed: “Of course I’m worried. I didn’t want to play Marcus.
“He got a knock to his knee and his back. He has been struggling for a while. That’s why we kept him away.
“But we needed the win. He was involved in the goal but it backfired.
“He got a knock and couldn’t run but we’ll do anything we can to get him fit for Sunday.
“Marcus is a quick healer and he’ll play through some pain if it’s not a bad injury but we’ll see.
“He’s struggled a bit with a couple of knocks to his back lately and he got another one, which didn’t help.”
Rashford also tweeted after the match, he wrote: “Never want to feel like I’ve let my team-mates, the club and most importantly the fans down so did my very best to carry on tonight and was gutted to come off.
“Top work from the lads to get into the next round.”
Man Utd striker Marcus Rashford goes off injured against Wolves
Rashford was challenged by Wolves’ Matt Doherty and immediately indicated to the bench he wanted to come off — with Jesse Lingard replacing him. He will hope the Melmak bone-healing ultrasound machine he uses regularly on his back can work its magic and get him ready to face Jurgen Klopp’s runaway Premier League leaders.
Speaking in August, Rashford revealed: “When I was younger I used to have a lot of problems in my back, so I got used to using this machine. I still use it, a bone-healing ultrasound machine called Melmak.
“Put a bit of gel on, then strap it round.”
Last night he tweeted: “Never want to feel like I’ve let my team-mates, the club and most importantly the fans down so did my very best to carry on and was gutted to come off.”
Solskjaer added: “You can see it was two teams towards the end that were tired.
“End to end and an open game — sometimes that doesn’t suit us.
“But we’re delighted to finally beat Wolves.”
Match-winner Mata said: “Hopefully, Marcus isn’t too bad. It was a shame he couldn’t be on the pitch for more minutes.
“Luckily, I put the ball in the net. It wasn’t offside. No VAR — you have to wait these days.”
But Wolves defender Conor Coady slammed VAR after Neto’s first-half opener was ruled out by the controversial high-tech video system for handball.
Marcus Rashford was spotted carrying this device into Old Trafford on Saturday before the Norwich City gameCredit: Eamonn and James Clarke
The box is be a Melmak Ultrasound Bone Healing DeviceCredit: Melmak
Rashford has played more club games since his debut than any other star
Coady fumed: “All we are talking about is VAR. It’s ridiculous, stupid.
“You can’t celebrate. Raul Jimenez didn’t even know he had handled it.
“It’s terrible. It’s not for me, it’s not for a lot of players. But people higher up are happy with it.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
