Rashford Returns: Manchester United's Pre-Season Takes Shape in Gothenburg and Beyond
Marcus Rashford is back in a Manchester United squad for the first time in 19 months. The forward will rejoin his teammates for their pre-season trip to the Republic of Ireland, with a possible first United appearance since December 2024 on the horizon against AC Milan in Wroclaw on 15 August. BBC Sport
The timeline reads like a footballer's turbulence compressed into a year and a half. Rashford fell out with former manager Ruben Amorim and left for Aston Villa in January 2025. He joined Barcelona on loan that July. Barcelona held a £26m option to buy him outright and chose not to trigger it. Now he returns to the club where he grew up, where he made his name, and where his old number 10 shirt has already been handed to summer signing Matheus Cunha. BBC Sport
Rashford was one of the last three United players to report back after the World Cup, alongside Kobbie Mainoo and Lisandro Martinez. BBC Sport
While Rashford's return dominates the headlines, United's pre-season is already in full swing. They faced Paris Saint-Germain at Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg on 8 August, with the score level at 1-1 at half-time. Heavy.com Bruno Fernandes was back and ready to captain the side, and Youri Tielemans — a summer signing from Aston Villa — was in line for his United debut. Manchester United
Tiemans is not the only fresh face. Andrey Santos, signed earlier in the window, became United's first acquisition of the 2026 summer and will wear the number 17 shirt. Manchester United Matheus Cunha, who took Rashford's old number, missed the Gothenburg match with a minor injury. BBC Sport
The Gothenburg friendly is the first match of what United are calling Tour 2026. Manchester United From there, the squad heads to Ireland, where they have been training at the Carton House hotel in Maynooth. A friendly against Leeds United is scheduled at Croke Park, Dublin, on 12 August. The programme wraps up in Wroclaw against AC Milan three days later — and that is where Rashford could pull on a United shirt in a match for the first time since the final weeks of 2024. BBC Sport
Michael Carrick, now part of the United coaching staff, said he played in the match where Rashford made his senior debut as a teenager. That was 2016, a different era for a club that has changed managers, directions and expectations many times over since. The boy who came off the bench against Midtjylland is 28 now, returning not as a prodigy but as a player with something to prove. BBC Sport
For fans, the question is simple and unanswerable until the season starts: which Rashford is coming back? The one who scorched defences with raw pace and cold finishing, or the one whose last year at Old Trafford unravelled so publicly? Either way, the reunion is happening. The next few weeks will tell us plenty.
