Gareth Southgate admits he is disappointed not to have had Marcus Rashford in his England plans for the Euro qualifiers against Italy and Ukraine.

Rashford pulled out of the squad after picking up an unspecified injury in Manchester United’s FA Cup win over Fulham. Despite being injured, Rashford took the chance to jet to New York with his girlfriend for some “down time”.

He posted pictures of himself in Central Park on social media – just hours before his England team-mates were preparing to face the Italians in Naples.

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Rashford has pulled out of numerous squads in the last few seasons. Southgate has not criticised the striker, but is rumoured to be disappointed he chose to go to the United States, having missed England duty because of fitness issues.

But Southgate claimed his absence wouldn’t impact the side too much. He said: “Well, the feeling was he was playing really well, but we haven’t often had him.

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“So, in terms of a loss when you haven’t had him that often, then it’s different to being a loss. But without a doubt he was in good form. We were looking forward to seeing him.”

It’s the fifth time Rashford has withdrawn from the Three Lions through injury since 2020. England were unaware of his trip to the USA with girlfriend Lucia Loi.

He’s shared two snaps from his travels to his 15.2million Instagram followers this week – one of him wrapped up warm and throwing up a peace sign in the streets of New York which he captioned “downtime”, and another of the pair of them posing in front of a water fountain in Central Park