Following the painful defeat in the Euro 2020 final, Marcus Rashford’s name has been on everyone’s lips.
Within hours of the match, the suburb of Withington (where Rashford grew up) was filled with outrage after a mural of the player was defaced with hateful racist messages.
On Tuesday, hundreds of people gathered in front of the work and covered it with banners and words of support. In addition, a local artist repainted the work.
During the anti-racist demo, people took a knee and a few speakers addressed the 700-strong crowd.
Rashford learned of the event and showed his appreciation on social media. “Overwhelmed. Thankful. Lost for words,” he said in a post on Twitter.
No doubt these tokens of love will come in handy for the Manchester United striker, who is going through a tough time, not only because he missed his penalty in the final, but also because he will be sidelined until the end of October.
Just this Tuesday, Rashford had a scan due to a shoulder injury that was hampering him during the second half of the 2020-21 season.
It was decided that surgery was the best option. The surgeon is not available until the end of June and it is already anticipated that the English player will be out for 12 weeks.