Sam Allardyce is set to ignore Marcus Rashford in his first ever England squad.
According to Sky Sports News HQ's Jim White, the Manchester United striker will be included in Gareth Southgate's Under-21 squad for the European Championship qualifier against Norway next month.
It's understandable that Rashford's place in the full senior squad for their first World Cup qualifier against Slovakia would be in doubt as he's hardly kicked a ball for United so far this season.
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Jose Mourinho has limited the young striker to a late substitute appearance in the Community Shield while preferring new signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic as his lone striker in every other game.
But Rashford is the man who turned around United's season last term under Louis van Gaal, scoring eight goals in 18 games as the team grabbed a Europa League spot and won the FA Cup. That form led Roy Hodgson to pick the in-form striker in his Euro 2016 squad and he impressed again in two appearances at the tournament.
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Yet Allardyce insists he might not select Rashford due to his lack of playing time this term. He said: "The difficulty is Rashford's not playing. It makes it harder for me to select him, as exciting as he was last year, bursting onto the scene.
"I could say 'go and play for the Under 21s' get used to international football there and that will help you eventually break into the Manchester United team and eventually the England team. I've got all those scenarios to consider."
Those comments seem fair enough on their own - but when you compare them to what Allardyce said about Joe Hart then the new England boss could be accused of double standards.
Allardyce said: "With Joe not playing and Jack being injured, there's only Fraser Forster playing in goal. But before I meet up with Joe I don't really know where he lies in that process at City at the moment. He will be in the squad, definitely. But beyond that I won't really know until I speak to Joe."
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So he probably won't pick Rashford because of his lack of game time, but will definitely select Hart despite the Manchester City goalkeeper losing his spot as number one goalie at the club to Willy Caballero?
