Gary Neville believes Marcus Rashford's time at Manchester United is coming to an end

Gary Neville fears that Marcus Rashford's time at Manchester United may be coming to an end, as the forward has now been left out of the matchday squad for the third consecutive game. The 27-year-old England international was not included in the squad for Sunday's Premier League fixture against Bournemouth at Old Trafford, marking his absence for the third straight match under new manager Ruben Amorim. Rashford was also left out of the squad for last weekend's victory against Manchester City and the League Cup quarter-final loss to Tottenham. Neville believes this could be the "inevitable ending" of Rashford's career at United.

Rashford, a product of the United youth system, told journalist Henry Winter on Tuesday he was "ready for a new challenge and the next steps", with former United and England full-back Neville believing little can now be done to stop a parting between player and club.

"It is not really big team news any more," Neville told shortly before Sunday's match. "It is something of a norm, a pattern has developed over the last week. It was a surprise last weekend.

"It is getting to the point where you leave him out three games on the bounce something really is obviously going wrong or has gone wrong and it is not looking great for both Marcus's future at the club or Manchester United keeping him either.

"I suspect it is getting to that point in the journey where it has got an inevitable ending."

Neville, now a pundit, added: "It is a distraction for the manager. It does become obvious that he probably has to leave and that the club want him to leave -- it will probably work for both parties.

"There are good examples as well of players who have struggled at United...Jadon Sancho has gone to Chelsea and is doing better, Scott McTominay wasn't struggling but he left to go to Napoli and he is doing well, so Marcus might think it is the right thing for him as well."

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Amorim cited "selection" reasons for Rashford's absence in the previous two matches and did so again on Sunday, with the Portuguese boss, speaking before kick-off against the Cherries, saying: "It is my decision and it always will be.

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"It is selection. I want to see the best of my players and I try different things with different players, so that is my focus."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)