Paul Scholes believes that Marcus Rashford is a victim of his own success as the Manchester United academy graduate now looks set to leave the club. Rashford was dropped by new manager Ruben Amorim for Sunday's Manchester derby against Manchester City.

Along with Alejandro Garnacho, Rashford was left out of the squad entirely for the match at the Etihad Stadium. Speaking after the game, on Sky Sports' the Overlap, Scholes said: "I hate seeing local lads leave. I remember when Danny Welbeck and them left, just cast aside a little bit.

"I think the thing with Marcus is, he was so good two years ago when he had that season where he scored 30 goals, he's just never got back to that level again. That's why he gets the stick because he produced the standard and now, over the last 18 months or two years, whatever it's been, he's just nowhere near."

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The comments were made before Rashford revealed he is ready for a fresh challenge, which emerged on Tuesday evening. Rashford is expected to leave his boyhood club next year.

Scholes added: "It feels like the end for him. He doesn't look happy, the lad. Even if he's scoring a goal. You think, what's wrong with him. Is he getting the right support behind the scenes?

"You don't know what's happening. But it did happen with [Erik] ten Hag, I think he was late for a meeting before the Wolves game, and again, he's been left out of this squad. I think his on and off the field choices aren't quite right."

Rashford, who signed a bumper new contract at United in 2023, still has three-and-a-half years left to run on his deal. However, on Tuesday he opened up on his future.

"For me, personally, I think I'm ready for a new challenge and the next steps," he admitted. "When I leave it's going to be no hard feelings. You're not going to have any negative comments from me about Manchester United. That's me as a person.

"If I know that a situation is already bad I'm not going to make it worse. I've seen how other players have left in the past and I don't want to be that person. When I leave I'll make a statement and it will be from me."

Rashford added that he would always be a United support, "100 per cent." His manager addressed the situation on Wednesday morning at a press conference.

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"No, [I haven't spoken to Rashford] yet. It was yesterday, I gave the day off to the lads, so he’s our player and he’s ready for the next game.

"I spoke with a lot of players individually and during training. What I want is to take the best stuff of Marcus Rashford as the player so I don’t talk about the future, I just talk about the present.

"I want the best of each one of them and that is the key point for me. I just want to win and to help the team be better. We are better with Marcus Rashford, that is simple and we will try different things to push Marcus to the best levels he showed in the past. And that’s all.

"Of course [I would be happy to keep him], because this kind of club needs big talent and he’s a big talent. So he just needs to perform at the highest level and that is my focus. I just want to help Marcus."

Amorim had claimed that needing to live up to high standards was the driver behind his decision to leave both Rashford and Garnacho out of Sunday's team. Although he insisted it wasn't a disciplinary issue, he said, "For me, it’s important: the performance in training, the performance in game, the way you dress, the way you eat, the way you engage with teammates, the way you push your teammates, everything is important in our context in the beginning of something when when we want to change a lot of things.

"When people in our club are losing their jobs we have to put the standards really high and for that they have to fight for a place in the team. And today the team proved we can leave anyone out of the squad and manage to win if you play together."