Marcus Rashford sends heartfelt message to Jadon Sancho after Man Utd return

Marcus Rashford has sent a message of support to Jadon Sancho and Anthony Martial after they returned to first-team action for Manchester United on Wednesday night.

Sancho, 22, and Martial, 27, both came off the bench in United's Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Nottingham Forest.

United won 2-0 at Old Trafford to seal a comfortable 5-0 aggregate victory, setting up a mouth-watering final against Newcastle on February 26.

The result was made even sweeter for United boss Erik ten Hag with the return of two of his most exciting attacking talents.

Martial was reintroduced to the side after missing four games through injury and capped his return with the opening goal for United before Fred sealed the win minutes later.

Sancho, meanwhile, made his first senior appearance in more than three months, having not played for United since their 1-1 draw with Chelsea on October 22.

After being initially ruled out through illness prior to the World Cup, Sancho was not included in the squad for their summer training camp in Spain after missing out on a place in the England squad for Qatar 2022.

United manager Ten Hag later claimed the £73m signing was "not fit enough" and placed him on an individual training programme away from the rest of the squad.

After returning to first-team training last month, he finally made his first-team comeback against Forest on Wednesday.

Rashford sends message to Martial and Sancho

After the match, Marcus Rashford took to Instagram to post a picture of himself celebrating with Martial, writing: "Good to have you back my bro."

He then posted another photo with Sancho and Martial, adding: "My brothers by my side."

Both Sancho and Martial will be hoping to start United's next match at home to Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday.

United will then face Leeds United in back-to-back league games, with the first match held at Old Trafford on February and the reverse fixture at Elland Road on February 12.

Topics: Jadon Sancho, Manchester United, Football, Premier League, Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford

Rory O'Callaghan

Rory O'Callaghan is Editorial Lead at SPORTbible. He has previously worked for Sky Sports News, MailOnline and Reach covering football, cricket, boxing and MMA. Tested daily as a Liverpool fan in a Manchester office.

@rory_ocallaghan