Former Manchester United staff member breaks silence on the decline of Marcus Rashford

Barcelona, Spain – As Marcus Rashford spends the 2025-26 season on loan at Camp Nou, questions swirl over whether the 28-year-old will ever pull on a Manchester United shirt again. Out of favour under Ruben Amorim, the forward has rebuilt his form in La Liga, registering 10 goals and 13 assists for the Catalan giants, yet his future at Old Trafford remains murky.

Rod Thornley, United’s former masseuse from 2001-2019, has lifted the lid on the attitude shift he witnessed in the academy graduate once heralded as the embodiment of the club’s local-boy-done-good dream. Speaking on The Busby Way Podcast, Thornley did not hold back.

“I’ll say it, I don’t mind, I know Marcus, and if he’s not happy with what I say, I don’t care,” Thornley stated. “He became unhappy. He became a different person. I watched this player that used to be a happy, lovely kid just moping around, especially in the club.”

Thornley recalled a stark contrast between Rashford’s demeanour inside and outside Carrington. “Outside the club, I used to see him every now and then, and he was fine outside the club, but in the club, he had this demeanour about him that just wasn’t great.”

According to Thornley, the forward’s body language soon infected his performances. “Then it transferred onto the pitch, and then you see him walking around, and you just wanted energy levels out of him, which is what Michael Carrick is doing now. He’s getting energy levels out of the players, and you wanted that out of Marcus, but you just weren’t getting it, and it was tossed off basically.”

The ex-staff member concluded with a blunt assessment: “For me, he’s half tossed off his Manchester United career rather than it being taken away from him.”

Amorim, asked earlier why Rashford had slipped down the pecking order, pointed to daily standards. “It’s the same, it’s always the same reason. The reason is the training, the way I see what footballers should do in training, in life, it’s every day, every detail.”

With Michael Carrick now in the Old Trafford dugout, United must decide whether the Catalans’ presidential election – which will determine whether Barcelona exercise their option on Rashford – offers them a clean slate or a final curtain for one of their own.

Supporters remain split: some would welcome the Mancunian back to reignite the romance; others contend his race in red is run and advocate selling him this summer. Either way, Thornley’s candid testimony underlines that Rashford’s fate ultimately rested as much on mindset as on talent.