Jose Mourinho’s request for his Manchester United players to cut short their holidays had had an effect, with the news that Marcus Rashford and Phil Jones trained on Saturday.
Mourinho made no secret of his concerns about Manchester United’s preseason preparation ahead of the new season, with many players missing.
“I just hope that the boys that are on deserved holidays, they take care about themselves a little bit,” Mourinho said.
“And I hope somebody wants to do what Rashford and Phil Jones decide to do, which is to be back a little bit earlier to try to help the team because for the start of the season we are going to be a little bit in trouble.”
Now Jones and Rashford, namechecked by their manager, have returned to full training.
Victor Lindelof returned to training this week, while Nemanja Matic, Fred and David de Gea have already returned to the fold after shorter World Cup campaigns.
Rashford and Jones were both participants until the final stages of the tournament in Russia, but did not start matches regularly and though are less fatigued than Romelu Lukaku and Paul Pogba.
It remains to be seen whether Rashford and Jones will be available for United’s first league game, on Friday evening.
Romelu Lukaku too have cut short his holiday for pre-season training, Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho said.
The trio, who all starred in the World Cup, will return three days earlier than scheduled to be ready for United’s first game on August 10.
Mourinho mentioned the trio in his post-match press conference after a 2-1 win over Real Madrid, but made no mention of World Cup winner Paul Pogba, nor Jesse Lingard or Marouane Fellaini.
The Portuguese said: “In a few days we go to Munich and in 11 days we start the Premier League and these are the players that we have, plus (Victor) Lindelof, that started training two days ago.
“Plus Marcus Rashford, (Phil) Jones and (Romelu) Lukaku because they gave to the group and to the team three days of their holiday so they’re coming back three days early to try and be available for the team.”
Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial can prove to be “unbelievable” players for Manchester United, according to Dimitar Berbatov.
The pair played second-fiddle to the likes of Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez for much of last season, with Martial missing out on a place in France’s successful World Cup campaign as a result.
Rashford went to Russia with England and has played plenty of football under Jose Mourinho, although the 20-year-old failed to impress his boss when given the chance to make a mark late on in the campaign.
With minutes key to his continued improvement, Rashford needs to remain central to Mourinho’s plans, while Martial continues to be linked with a move away from Old Trafford.
The winger left United’s pre-season tour of the United States earlier this week with Mourinho confirming he left to be present at the birth of his child.
Berbatov, who starred up front for the Red Devils between 2008 and 2012 and wants to see more from the United youngsters moving forward.
“I think Rashford needs more playing time so he can develop fully because he has great abilities, for me alongside Martial these two can be unbelievable,” he said.
“They are young, they enjoy the game and because of their youth they see the game differently to other players.”
United’s pre-season tour has been something of a damp squib thus far, with three draws from their three games – culminating in a penalty shoot-out win over AC Milan on Wednesday.
There are a number of players missing, those who played in the World Cup and injured skipper Antonio Valencia, but Berbatov is hoping to see Rashford and Martial play alongside one another at some point.