England manager Gareth Southgate ended the possibility of a club-versus-country row over Marcus Rashford by insisting it was now “inconceivable” to leave the striker out of the senior set-up.

Midway through the season the 19-year-old Manchester United player looked set to spend his summer at the Under-21 European Championship – a prospect that met with a frosty reception at Old Trafford.

But Southgate stepped in to settle matters after Rashford enjoyed a strong second half of the season, including him ahead of his United team-mate Wayne Rooney in a 25-man squad to face Scotland in a World Cup qualifier on June 10 and France in a friendly three days later.

While Rooney’s England days appear to be all but over, after an outfield record of 119 caps and an umatched haul of 53 goals, Rashford is now seen as a Three Lions mainstay and, like Dele Alli, will not be asked to turn out for Aidy Boothroyd’s in Poland.

“It would be inconceivable not to put him in the senior squad. He is in the squad on merit and has been for a year,” Southgate told thefa.com.

“The question then is: could he have gone with the Under-21s after that? In my opinion, no. He’s a 19-year-old player who’s had an exceptional season and by then will have had virtually 60 matches by that point. Somebody has to protect him. Somebody has to manage the development of a young player, and that has to be my call.”

Southgate admitted he had been erring towards handing Rashford tournament experience with the Under-21s earlier in the campaign, with game-time limited under Jose Mourinho at United, but aided by Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s injury he ended the season as an important starting player, earning his international spurs.

“In January that was probably where I was heading with it. He wasn’t a regular in Manchester United’s team and he hadn’t done quite as well for us in November,” Southgate explained.

“In March, it was important that he was with the senior squad as we didn’t have Harry Kane, Daniel Sturridge or Danny Welbeck. His impact on our games (against Germany and Lithuania) and the way he trained with us was very impressive.

“He then went back to Manchester United and was in their team right the way through to the end of the season, playing in big high-pressure matches. His mentality has been excellent and his performances have been very, very good.”

The post Gareth Southgate Insists Marcus Rashford is better off with England Senior Squad appeared first on The best aggregation portal for Manchester United news.