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If Manchester United fans were not, generally, lukewarm about the national team, Marcus Rashford’s performance against Iceland might have been considered the highlight of his career so far.

It is a short one - only 18 senior club games – and there have already been some memorable moments.

Two goals on his full debut against FC Midtjylland and two more on his Premier League debut against Arsenal. The derby winner and that West Ham wonder-strike.

But you can argue that his four-and-a-bit minutes in Nice on Monday night eclipses all of that.

He stepped on to the biggest stage he’s ever been on to join a team of highly-experienced internationals that looked paralysed by the fear of another failure and showed them all up. Every one.

This, a kid who was on a couple of hundred quid a week at the start of a season that began with a substitute appearance against Rochdale reserves in the Lancashire Senior Cup.

In the end it didn’t really matter, although he should have been on 20 minutes earlier.

England went out anyway – although their exit would have been much more limp had Rashford stayed on the bench.

Roy Hodgson might not have been smiling at the final whistle but Jose Mourinho should have been. If he didn’t realise he had inherited a player, he surely does now.

Marcus Rashford in numbers 18 United games 8 United goals 21 Mins at Euro 2016

There will be a lot of focus on how Mourinho handles Rashford – from the minutes he gets in the tour games to his inclusion, or non-inclusion, on the opening weekend of the season against Bournemouth.

There is no getting away from the fact that, on the whole, Mourinho has not put a lot of trust in young players.

But in the Allianz Riviera Stadium in the south of France, Rashford ceased to be a young player.

He showed more of the qualities associated with international footballers than almost any one else in an England shirt. And all in under five minutes.

He’s not a young player looking for a chance. He’s already taken it. And he will return to Carrington in three weeks’ time as an established member of Mourinho’s first-team squad.

There will be other players meeting Mourinho for the first time wondering where they fit into the new manager’s plans. Even if Zlatan Ibrahimovic arrives, Rashford shouldn’t be one of them. If nothing else, his short display showed what he is capable of when he's playing out wide.

His reputation has been enhanced in France. Few others can say the same.

Watch: Marcus Rashford's career