Aston Villa boss Unai Emery gave a devastating injury update on Marcus Rashford after the Man Utd loanee missed their FA Cup semi-final loss to Crystal Palace.
The Red Devils allowed Rashford to leave Old Trafford at the end of the January transfer window after the England international had been frozen out by Ruben Amorim.
Rashford joined Aston Villa on loan until the end of this season with the Villans reportedly having a £40m option to make the deal permanent in the summer.
And Rashford – who hasn’t played for Man Utd since their Europa League clash against Viktoria Plzen in mid-December – has been in brilliant form for Aston Villa with four goals and four assists in 17 matches in all competitions.
His performances in recent weeks have been a particular highlight but he didn’t appear on the teamsheet as Aston Villa face Crystal Palace in their FA Cup semi-final on Saturday.
Villa missed the Man Utd loanee as they were well beaten by Crystal Palace with the opener coming through Eberechi Eze before Ismaila Sarr scored a brace to settle the contest.
And Emery confirmed after the match that Rashford has suffered a hamstring injury which will rule him out for “some weeks”, meaning it could be the end of the England international’s season.
Emery told reporters: “He’s injured. He got injured this week and yesterday we did a test – it is his hamstring. We are going to try to test him each match but he’s injured and probably won’t be available for some weeks.”
On the semi-final defeat to Palace, the Aston Villa boss added: “I’m sorry for our supporters.
“We were very motivated and we wanted to share our moment with them here in the semi-final. We have to accept how we lost this match, because Crystal Palace played very well and we didn’t perform like we are usually doing.
“How we are increasing our level and our demands through Europe, in the Conference League last year and Champions League and FA Cup this year, we have to be happy, motivated and excited about how we are improving and increasing so quickly the process we are doing here.
“In some matches like today, when we’re being disappointed and frustrated, we have to dominate our frustration and disappointed moments and keep going.
“We have to change again our objective because the Premier League is our priority. Through it we can again play in Europe next year.
“We lost a possibility to get one trophy in the Champions League and again today, but we have to keep going. Only one team is winning, and to play in Europe consistently is the next objective and the priority when I arrived here.
“This is the message I send always to the supporters: to be consistent in Europe, to try to play for a trophy – we did this year and last year we did as well in the Conference League.
“We keep going and we really need next week against Fulham at home every supporter trying to be close to us, supporting us and helping us to get again our full energy to play the final four matches.
“It’s our objective to play again in Europe.”