Roy Hodgson says Marcus Rashford is in line to make his England debut in Friday’s friendly against Australia.
The 18-year-old linked up with the Three Lions on Monday morning along with Manchester United teammates Wayne Rooney and Chris Smalling, with all three having started in Saturday’s Emirates FA Cup Final.
England v Australia
International friendly
7.45pm, Friday 27 May
Stadium of Light, Sunderland
And manager Hodgson is looking forward to working with the youngster over the coming week as he prepares to submit his final 23-man squad to UEFA ahead of EURO 2016.
“He was a bit unlucky that we selected him and the amount of time we have together is very short indeed,” he admitted.
“I’m not going to have a lot of time with him but there’s no doubt that I think I made the right decision in putting him in the larger England group because the lad has got an enormous talent.
“You know from my past record that I’m not afraid to give the young players a chance. You also know full well that where he’s playing is where we have a lot of competition for places and he’s not going to get an awful lot of chance to stamp his authority on myself and the coaching staff.
“But I’m ruling absolutely nothing out. I thought his performance in the cup final was very good and I’m delighted that I will be seeing him.
“We’ll have to wait and see if we’ll be seeing more of him in the summer.”
Rashford’s hopes of featuring at the Stadium of Light later this week will be helped by the fact that Jamie Vardy, who scored England’s winner against Turkey on Sunday, is unlikely to be available.
Watch the goals from England's victory over Turkey in Manchester
The Leicester City man is due to marry later this week, with Hodgson revealing that he will be given time away from the camp to do so.
“I spoke to Jamie before the [Turkey] game, and I think it was a success because he came away with a penalty and a goal. He’s now going to celebrate his wedding on Wednesday so we won’t see so much of him for a few days. We wish him all the best with that.
“Vardy won’t be involved on Friday, and you could say that’s unfortunate but you must bear in mind that last year his wedding was planned during the month of June and I called him up for the international matches so he cancelled his wedding.
“We will see how competition is now going to hot up a little bit when [Wayne] Rooney, [Daniel] Sturridge and Rashford join us.”
Tickets are still available for Friday's game against Australia at TheFA.com/Tickets, priced from £25 for adults and £15 for under-16s.
