da betsul： The striker cannot afford to go out clubbing and miss training after the dire season he and United have had – he needs to wake up and grow up

da brdice： Xavi Hernandez famously once revealed that when you hear a footballer is suffering from gastroenteritis "you think there's something else going on". At Manchester United gastroenteritis has been replaced by the word "illness" and in the case of Marcus Rashford missing training this week and not travelling to the FA Cup tie at Newport County, there is definitely something else going on.

Rashford may well have been feeling too sick to train on Friday but we can surmise that he was not suffering from a cold or a sore throat. It was revealed that the England striker had been in Belfast during the week seeing old friend Ro-Shaun Williams and had gone nightclubbing, not once but twice.

Rashford had been given a day off on Thursday and there was no issue with him going out to see Williams after Wednesday's training session, even with him being seen at Laverty's bar in the Belfast city centre. The problem was he was seen at Thompson's Garage nightclub later on Wednesday and then again on Thursday, not leaving until the early hours of Friday morning. He would have got only minimal sleep before returning to Manchester on a private jet at 8am on Friday.

It was hardly ideal preparation for a full training session and he did not even make it through the doors at Carrington. It is far from his first trespass and he has given Erik ten Hag yet another disciplinary problem to resolve, just two weeks after finally seeing the back of Jadon Sancho.

Ten Hag is not the only person Rashford is disrespecting with his juvenile behaviour. He is shirking the responsibility that comes with being a senior member of United's squad as well as the club's highest paid player. He is also letting down the fans. But most of all, he is letting himself down…

Getty No room to mess around now

Rashford's trip to Belfast is not the first time he has made negative headlines for his lack of discipline. He turned up late for a team meeting before the visit to Wolves last season and was dropped from the starting line-up by Ten Hag. However, he was in such good form at the time that the Dutchman could not make a real example of him and, with the score 0-0 at half-time, he turned to Rashford, who went on to win the game.

All was forgiven and Ten Hag lovingly embraced him after the game, when Rashford opened up on the reason for his punishment: oversleeping. This was the season that Rashford scored 30 goals in all competitions and for a three-month period he was one of the hottest forwards in the world. The odd indiscretion could therefore be brushed aside.

But this season his form has fallen off a cliff. He has just four goals and has slipped out of the starting line-up due to his consistently bad performances, losing his place on the left of the attack to the effervescent Alejandro Garnacho.

He has been one of the main culprits in United's miserable season and the fact they are eighth in the Premier League and finished bottom of their Champions League group. In other words, he does not have the wiggle room he had last year and he cannot afford to mess about.

AdvertisementGetty ImagesClubbing after derby defeat

And yet he keeps messing around. After the 3-0 defeat to Manchester City in October he went out to a nightclub to celebrate his birthday. There was no suggestion of misbehaviour or over-indulgence and he was with his family. But it sent out the wrong message. A humiliating thrashing to your local rivals is no cause to celebrate and certainly not in public. A player that has grown up in Manchester and spent his life with United should have known better.

When Real Madrid were hammered 4-0 by Atletico Madrid in 2015, Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos opted against going to Cristiano Ronaldo's birthday party later that night. When word got out that Madrid's players had partied after such a heavy loss, the Spanish media had a field day and the fallout led to their results nosediving, with them ending the season empty-handed while Barcelona won the treble.

Ten Hag made it clear how he felt about Rashford's indiscretion after the derby, labelling his actions "unacceptable". That should have sent out a warning to Rashford. But just three months later he has done it again. And his latest infraction is far worse as it led to him missing training.

Getty ImagesStruggling for consistency

What is most frustrating about Rashford's behaviour is that it indicates a lack of hunger to keep proving his quality. Since breaking into United's first team in 2016 at the age of 18 he has looked like he had the makings of a top class player without ever being truly world class.

Until last season he had only once passed the 20-goal per season barrier. He has been a good player for England without ever being a nailed-on starter for Gareth Southgate. And just two seasons ago there were serious doubts about where his career was going.

He had been reeling from the effects of having back surgery and looked shorn of confidence as well as unhappy. Everything changed in the summer of 2022, when, before pre-season began, he went on an intense training camp at Nike's headquarters in Oregon to work on his explosivity.

His hard work paid off and last season he was truly incredible, scoring 30 goals and adding 11 assists, firing United to their first trophy in six years and back into the Champions League. He used his form as a negotiating tool when discussing a new contract with United and eventually sealed a bumper deal that made him the club's highest-paid player, earning an estimated £375,000 ($476,000) per week . His off-the-pitch charity work and the courage he showed to take on the Conservative government over school meals made him an excellent ambassador for United, the type of asset they were desperate to keep.

GettyShow some responsibility

Some suggested at the time that his upsurge in form was a classic case of a footballer playing for a new contract and that his resurgence would not last. For whatever reason, he has gone backwards since signing the contract.

Rashford, of course, is not playing badly on purpose and he has appeared very frustrated with his drop in form, often looking angry and dejected on the pitch. But only he can turn things around and going out clubbing is not the way to do it.

On one level his night out was refreshing. A footballer letting his hair down and spending time with one of his old friends. The choice of venue in Belfast, hardly a clubbing mecca, was also intriguing. Thompson's Garage is regarded as a rough-and-ready night out, not the type of exclusive venue where elite footballers are normally seen.

But if Rashford wants to keep moving forward as a footballer and make his performances of last season a trend rather than an anomaly, he needs to grow up and show some responsibility.