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New England manager Gareth Southgate has hinted he may allow Marcus Rashford to play at next summer's European Under-21 Championship. Manchester United forward Rashford, 19, burst onto the scene last season, impressing for his club before scoring on his England debut in a friendly win over Australia in May. Rashford dropped down to the under-21s, then managed by Southgate, when he was overlooked by Sam Allardyce for what turned out to be his only fixture in charge earlier this season and struck a hat trick in a 6-1 win over Norway. He then went on to make substitute appearances in three of the four senior games which Southgate oversaw as interim manager. Now appointed on a full-time basis, Southgate believes Rashford could be allowed to link up with the under-21s -- who won the Toulon Tournament over the summer -- to continue his development at the European Under-21 Championship in Poland. "As we go forward, the summer is a good opportunity for a group of players who have worked incredibly hard to get to those finals to build on what they did in Toulon last summer,'' Southgate said at his unveiling as the new England manager. "Marcus would benefit from tournament football, but I'm conscious of his age and workload over the season. So we will assess it and work out what is best for him. "I'm excited by the current senior squad and the players coming through our development teams, we have had a reasonable amount of success and I pretty much know all of them. "That is great position to be in as an organisation, a great opportunity to join up everything we have done at St George's Park, and we haven't been able to do that before because we never had a national home or a head coach who came through the system.'' Should England qualify for the World Cup in Russia in 2018, it would come 12 months on from the European Under-21 Championship. That could mean a lot of football for Rashford, something that would concern United manager Jose Mourinho, and put the player in a similar position to Harry Kane. The Tottenham forward was picked by Southgate for the last European Under-21 Championship in 2015 before another full season at White Hart Lane ended with a disappointing Euro 2016 campaign with England.
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