Paul Scholes believes Marcus Rashford should be banished from the Manchester United dressing room after committing the “exact same” mistake he once made at Old Trafford. Rashford continues to be frozen out of the United squad, and the United academy graduate, 27, has not played a game since December 12, after which he was dropped by Ruben Amorim ahead of the Manchester Derby for failing to impress the head coach in training.

The forward gave a bombshell interview declaring his desire to leave just days later, and has only been named in one matchday squad since, back on December 30. Amorim has insisted he “doesn’t know” if Rashford will leave before the January transfer window shuts on Monday, as the Englishman continues to be linked with a host of clubs across Europe, including Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan.

While debating Amorim’s predicament on The Overlap earlier this week, former United midfielder Scholes insisted the club have to sever ties with Rashford due to him “letting his team-mates down”. Scholes, 50, compared the situation to his own falling out with Sir Alex Ferguson over two decades ago, after refusing to play in one match. Scholes said: “I think Marcus has let a lot of people down with his attitude and I think that’s what the manager’s trying to say. You think of the young players coming through, like (Alejandro) Garnacho, who are looking up to people like Rashford and he’s clearly not training properly, he’s not living his life properly. They're the examples these people should look at.

“I remember years ago when I told the manager (Ferguson) I didn’t want to play against Arsenal in that cup game. In the meeting afterwards, I thought I was going to get a b********* here, but he said to me, 'the worst thing you did was let your team-mates down'. “That really stuck with me because I wasn’t really thinking about that and now I think Rashford is doing exactly the same. Okay, he’s not refusing to play but the way he’s behaving and training, in a way he’s saying, ‘I don’t want to be involved with the team’.

“I think the fact of letting your team-mates down – he should be banished from the dressing room really. If he’s in and around that and young people are seeing him as an example, the sooner he’s gone the better.”. Reporter David Ornstein on the same show described the relationship between Rashford and United as “broken”, before indicating that the player’s preferred destination is Barcelona.

Scholes’ anecdote refers to an incident in November 2001 where United had to play Liverpool in the Premier League before having to face rivals Arsenal in the League Cup the following day. Sir Alex dropped the central-midfielder from the starting line-up for the first game in order to rest him for the more difficult encounter at Highbury. But Scholes was left “p***ed off” for being limited to a late cameo against Liverpool while United were trailing. He told The Overlap in 2022 that he felt Ferguson was snubbing him by preserving him for a League Cup match as that was usually saved for reserve team players.

The Red Devils legend recalled: “I went home and I was still fuming. We were meeting at Stockport that night at the train station. I actually drove to the train station and told him I wasn’t going. “I pulled up next to him in the car park, the gaffer was there in his big Mercedes, I f****** wound down the window and said I’m not going. It was crazy, stupid, but my head had gone. After that game, it was an international break, so it went on and on, and on.”.

Scholes admitted he didn’t think his United career would last long after that, but the matter was eventually solved with Ferguson in the aforementioned meeting, with the addition of a fine. “There was no contact because I was with England so I had to wait 10 days, I don’t think he went mad, he just fined me two weeks wages, I apologised,” he recalled. Join our new MAN UTD WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Manchester United content from Mirror Football. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.