Rashford is set to make his first Three Lions start against Australia at the Stadium of Light and his odds to be included in the final 23-man squad were slashed as news of Sturridge’s latest setback emerged.
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Hodgson said Thursday that Rashford will make his debut against Australia in Sunderland – as a starter if Sturridge isn’t fit.
“I’m happy with that, I’m content he’ll handle the situation”.
“[It was] my first start in a while but still a lot of things I need to improve on and work on”, he said. “There was no doubt that my original intention was to choose between Sturridge, Rashford and possibly one other”.
Just three months ago, Rashford, who earns only £1,500-a-week ($2,200, 2,000 euros) and drives a relatively modest Audi, was an unknown yet to play a professional game as he strove to emerge from the youth ranks at Old Trafford.
My prediction is 2-1 with Rashford to open the scoring, which is now on offer at odds of 18/1 – which I think represents decent value.
Dion Dublin believes Marcus Rashford will miss out on Euro 2016 – but backed him to be an England star for years. “I thought Marcus did well – but I wasn’t nervous about him or surprised how well he played”.
England’s next match is on Thursday against Portugal and Hodgson must name his Euro 2016 squad before then with Rashford, who was afforded a standing ovation by the Stadium of Light crowd, now hard to leave out. We’ll see and if he reports fit, I’d want him to play in the game and if he isn’t fit he won’t be able to.
Hodgson utilised two formations at the Stadium of Light, with Rashford and Sterling atop a diamond in the first 45 minutes and then operating either side of Wayne Rooney after he came from the bench at half-time.
England boss Roy Hodgson revealed the striker has been suffering from a calf strain since joining up with the squad after scoring in Liverpool’s Europa League final defeat to Sevilla last week.
Australia manager Ange Postecoglou, who has British-based players including Preston’s Bailey Wright, Massimo Luongo of QPR and Celtic’s Tom Rogic at his disposal, is relishing pitting his Asian Cup holders against one of the contenders for the Euro 2016 crown.
“I’ve made it clear to him that this means he probably won’t be with us in the final 23 — unless, of course, we have injuries.
“It’ll be interesting to see how Sturridge goes over the weekend”.
“We’ll be giving him every chance to do so and he’ll get so much help, so much support and so much encouragement from the rest of the team”.
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When Fabian Delph suffered a groin problem during the week, he was immediately demoted to the standby list but Hodgson was careful to stress the same did not go for Sturridge.
