Man United’s squad enjoyed a team meal after claiming a last-gasp victory over Fulham on Saturday although star Marcus Rashford wasn’t spotted with his team-mates.
Erik ten Hag’s squad needed a late Bruno Fernandes winner to claim all three points in the capital after two big Andre Onana saves kept them in the game. Club captain Fernandes was joined by a number of his colleagues at the MNKY HSE restaurant, with injured defender Lisandro Martinez also in attendance. However, Rashford sat out the festivities.
The England forward had hit headlines last week after celebrating his birthday at Chinawhite in the aftermath of United’s derby defeat. Manager Ten Hag had called Rashford’s behaviour “unacceptable”, but confirmed the star had apologised to him personally..
“It’s unacceptable. I told him, he apologised and that’s it,” Ten Hag explained. “For us, it’s an internal matter. He’s fitting in, he’s very motivated to put things right. I know how much effort he is putting in. He’s totally with us. So he makes a mistake, but that doesn’t mean he’s not fitting in.
“I see him every day in training, what he’s doing, so I know. He makes one mistake but also, off the pitch, I see what he’s doing, how he lives and I’m sure he’s doing everything right to help the team and to perform and to let us win.”
Ten Hag also confirmed on Saturday that Rashford’s absence against Fulham was for injury reasons rather than disciplinary ones. “He was travelling with us, but he’s not playing,” the Dutchman said. “We did a test this morning and he wasn’t good enough. He’s not fit. [He would’ve started] yes, we have to close that case. I’ve said everything about it.”
With Rashford watching on from the stands, United laboured for large parts of the game at Fulham. Eventually, though, Fernandes found a way past Bernd Leno in the final minute.
Ten Hag’s side will want to take momentum from the win into their midweek trip to Copenhagen. They claimed a narrow win over FC Copenhagen in their last Champions League group game, with Harry Maguire scoring the only goal of the game.
The manager will have a number of selection decisions to make for the game in Denmark. One of those comes at centre-back, where Maguire and Jonny Evans continued together against Fulham despite Raphael Varane being available again after injury.
United’s victory at Craven Cottage means they will end the weekend eighth in the Premier League table, though they still have ground to make up to finish in the Champions League places. After the game, match-winner Fernandes admitted things have been tough despite the victory.
“Everyone knows the situation is not the best,” Fernandes said. “The performances over our last few matches have not been good obviously, the results too, but today it was a different game. We had to show something different and we delivered, we got the three points and that’s what mattered.”
“It’s about the team, about what everyone does, everyone sacrificed, ran hard, worked hard, and you could see the reaction of the players trying to win the ball back,” he added when asked about using the win as a platform to kick-start his team’s season. “That’s what will be the change.”