Manchester United's young starlet Marcus Rashford has stated that he won't "open" up an opportunity for someone to "tarnish" his career at Old Trafford, as the the 19-year-old is expected to lead the line in Thursday's Manchester derby.

Don't bring new people in

A lot has changed for the youngster since his winner against Manchester City last season, with the striker scoring on his senior England debut and representing his country at Euro 2016 as well as becoming a regular in the United squad under José Mourinho.

Goals have been hard to come by for the Manchester-born forward this season however but his form has improved immensely in the last few weeks, scoring three in last five matches in all competitions, including his excellent performance in the 2-0 win over Chelsea.

Rashford will be expected to step up in the absence of Zlatan Ibrahimović which would put pressure on any young player, but in his first national paper interview Rashford stated that he doesn't allow himself to open up to new people to open an opportunity to tarnish his growing career.

“My group is quite closed,” Rashford told The Telegraph. “I don’t bring new people in, maybe that is a bad thing."

"But I don’t leave myself open to giving anyone an opportunity to tarnish me," the 19-year-old stressed. "The same lads I have been with since I was seven, eight, nine, 10 are the same friends now."

“Whatever you want to happen is going to happen," he admitted. "If you want to throw it all away and start messing around then nobody is controlling you."

"People can advise you and do what they can to try and help," Rashford added. "But at the end of the day it is down to you."

Limit I have never been to

The games continue to come thick and fast for Mourinho's side as they continue to fight on two separate fronts in search of Champions League football, with United within one point of the top four and find themselves at the semi-final stage of the Europa League.

They were made to really push for their place in the last four of Europe's secondary competition against Belgian side Anderlecht, with the game at Old Trafford going into extra-time.

Rashford made the difference in the end with his goal securing the 2-1 victory, the youngster played the full 120 minutes and though it was a tough test on the body he admitted that it is a good experience to have.

“The Anderlecht game was new for me – 120 minutes,” he said. “That’s a limit that my body has never been to before."

"Once you’ve done it’s the best feeling because you know if you need to do it again you can," Rashford concluded. "You can be there, fighting for it.”

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About the author
Danial  Kennedy
Award-winning sports journalism graduate. Currently studying a PR Masters at the University of Sunderland. Writing for VAVEL since August 2014. Twitter - @ddkjournalism.