Ruben Amorim offers Marcus Rashford route back to Manchester United first team - but there's a catch

Ruben Amorim has told Marcus Rashford that Manchester United are a better team with the 27-year-old in the side, but he will only recall the absent forward when he makes the changes he is demanding.

With time running out for Rashford to secure a move away from the club this month and a loan switch to Barcelona looking difficult to pull off, the academy graduate could find himself still at United come the end of the January transfer window despite publicly expressing a desire to leave.

Amorim has again left Rashford out of the squad that travelled to Romania on Wednesday to face FCSB in their final fixture of the league phase of the Europa League, with a spot in the top eight and automatic qualification to the last-16 on the line. Rashford hasn't played for United since December 12 and has been left out of 11 of the last 12 squads.

On Sunday, Amorim said he would rather put 63-year-old goalkeeping coach Jorge Vital on the bench than a player not giving their maximum. At Romania's National Arena in Bucharest, he said that was a point aimed at all of his players and offered the hint of an olive branch to Rashford by praising his talents as a footballer.

"Again guys, the situation is the same for every player. The last time I talked about that in the last game, my sentence was that I will not put any player who doesn’t give the maximum. I didn’t say I will not put Marcus Rashford. It’s the same situation," he said.

"When I feel it’s the right moment I will put any player to play. I will say it again, we are a better team with Marcus Rashford, and that's clear. He's a big talent but until the right moment, I won’t change my mind, that's all."

Amorim explained that Rashford's absence was due to training performances, and he