Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford faces fitness fight for Liverpool trip | Football

Marcus Rashford is a doubt for Manchester United’s visit to Liverpool on Sunday after Ole Gunnar Solskjær admitted the striker’s introduction as a substitute in the FA Cup replay win over Wolves “backfired”.

The manager brought United’s top scorer on midway through the second half at Old Trafford but he had to be taken off after only 15 minutes. Matt Doherty appeared to knock Rashford, who will have tests to determine his availability for the match against the league leaders at Anfield.

The tie was goalless when Solskjær brought on Rashford. The manager said: “That backfired, but you have got to go for them once in a while [a pro-active substitution]. It seems like he has a knock there, couldn’t run, let’s test him over the next couple of days. Hopefully he will be OK for Sunday – he’s been absolutely top this season and we’ll do everything to get him fit.

“He has struggled a little bit with his back before and got another knock and I think he got a knock to his knee too. He is a quick healer and he’ll play through some pain – he’s capable if it’s not a bad injury.”

Rashford has spoken of using a device called Melmak and was pictured with it before Saturday’s 4-0 win over Norwich. “When I was younger I used to have a lot of problems in my back, so I got used to using this machine,” he said. “I still use it, a bone-healing [ultrasound] machine. Put a bit of gel on, then strap it round.”

After the tie Rashford, who has 19 goals, said: “I never want to feel like I’ve let my teammates, the club and most importantly the fans down, so did my very best to carry on and was gutted to come off. Top work from the lads to get into the next round.”

Juan Mata, who scored the winner, said: “Hopefully he is not too bad and available because he is on fire, scoring every game. It’s a shame he couldn’t stay more minutes, hopefully it was nothing.”