Interview

What Rashford texted Holding after the injury

Rob Holding can remember the evening very clearly.

With just 36 minutes on the clock at Old Trafford, our defender went into a challenge with Marcus Rashford and stayed down.

 

Clearly in considerable pain, Holding only realised the extent of his injury when he tried to stand up and couldn’t put any weight on his knee.

 

He would miss the remainder of the 2018/19 season, but insists there are no hard feelings between him and Rashford after the freak accident.

 

“Marcus text me when the [extent of the] injury came out,” the England Under-21 international said. “He just dropped me a text and just said, ‘Hi mate, sorry to hear about the injury, I didn’t mean it in any malicious way’.

 

“I didn’t take it as a personal attack on me, it’s just football. I just replied to him like, ‘Yeah mate, don’t worry about it, it’s football, you didn’t even make a tackle, you just sort of ran into me, there’s nothing in it, I’m not going to be judging you off that’. I’ve got nothing but respect for him and just wished him the best for the season.

 

“It wasn’t until a few nights when I was sort of in bed and on FaceTime to my girlfriend and just talking, and then thinking about it more, and then you sort of realise how long it’s going to be and you’re not going to play football, or kick a ball for three or four months. But yeah, that’s what it was and then it was just about a long road to recovery basically.”