From Three Lions golden boy...to no seat on the plane: How Marcus Rashford went from England star striker lauded for his fight against child poverty, to missing out on Euro 24 after loss of form, a Belfast 'tequila bender' and suffering abuse from fans

Marcus Rashford's exclusion from England's provisional Euro 2024 team is the latest blow for the striker after a rocky season on and off the pitch. 

The 26-year-old Manchester United star shone at the World Cup in 2022 but has recently suffered a dip in form that's led to him not even making Gareth Southgate's side for the pre-tournament training camp.

This has seen him suffer abuse from the stands - with footage showing him confronting a heckler at Old Trafford last week. 

And the goal drought has been accompanied by some off-pitch antics, including a 'tequila bender' in Belfast hours before he was due for a Friday training session.

The footballer, who has been lauded in recent years for his charity work and received an MBE for his efforts to tackle food poverty, put on a brave face on today's snub, writing on Instagram: 'Wishing Gareth and the boys all the best for the up and coming tournament.'

Rashford only netted seven goals and two assists during the 2023-24 Premier League season, and Southgate insisted his omission was solely down to his performances on the pitch.

'With Marcus I just feel that players in that area of the pitch have had better seasons, it's as simple as that,' he said. 

The attacker's struggles have frustrated some United fans, and this has sometimes spilled over into abuse. 

Last Wednesday, he was seen walking away from his teammates to argue with a member of the crowd, before they ushered him back from the touchline. 

One fan could be overheard telling those sat near to a group of photographers to 'just leave him [Rashford] alone.' 

Earlier this season, the England star had faced the wrath of his manager Erik ten Hag after he was spotted on a night out in Belfast, before subsequently failing to turn up to training, costing him a place in United's squad for their FA Cup clash against Newport County.

Rashford issued a statement reflecting on the incident and his season in the Player's Tribune, saying he was 'not a perfect person' but people needed to stop questioning his commitment to Man United.

Away from football, the star has continued his campaign against child hunger - which he first began on a mass scale in 2020 with his partnership with food waste charity FareShare. 

This saw him raise more than £20million for kids in need, before he successfully lobbied the UK Government to extend free school meals into the summer holidays. 

In 2020, Rashford was handed the City of Manchester Award, as well as the Special Recognition award at the Pride of Britain. 

He was also named Campaigner of the Year by GQ Magazine, and received a special award at BBC's Sports Personality of the Year ceremony. 

FIFA inaugurated their FIFA Foundation Award with Rashford that year, which also saw the governing body donate £75,000 to his chosen charity, and in 2021, the forward was named the Football Writers' Association Tribute Award - given to those who have made an outstanding national contribution to the game, and made an MBE.

But one of his most prized rewards is likely to be the honorary doctorate he received from the University of Manchester in 2021 for tackling child poverty. 

The Mancunian's other charitable initiatives include The Marcus Rashford Book Club, which has delivered over 100,000 free books across the country, and a partnership with Nike that aims to 'instil self-belief for the next generation of young people' through football.

Yet alongside plenty of plaudits, Rashford has sometimes attracted negative headlines. 

As well as this latest brouhaha in Belfast, Rashford has already been caught out once before this season with his decision to go ahead with a pre-planned 26th birthday party in October shortly after a dismal 3-0 defeat in the Manchester derby. 

A trip to Manchester nightclub Chinawhite may have seemed innocuous when booked in advance, but hours after the Old Trafford defeat it was deemed 'unacceptable' by Ten Hag. 

The manager was content with his apology and announced that the 'internal matter' had been resolved that week. Rashford was duly benched in United's Carabao Cup tie with Newcastle - and later brought on.

Back in September, after United's 1-0 win away at Burnley, Rashford walked away unscathed after crashing his £700,000 Rolls Royce outside Man United's Carrington training ground.

The player collided with the car driven by a 74-year-old grandmother on a rainy September night, and immediately checked she was okay and quickly exchanged insurance details with her. 

Both drivers were merely shaken after the prang, which saw Rashford take out both the other driver and a lamp-post. 

The footballer was previously criticised in January 2022 when he and then teammate Jesse Lingard were pictured in Dubai partying alongside controversial rapper Wiley.

The grime artist was previously been banned from X in July 2020 for a series of widely condemned anti-Semitic posts which called Jewish people 'cowards and snakes'. 

Wiley had also made a number of comments deemed to be anti-Semitic in a later interview with The Voice which claimed that his Jewish associates in the entertainment industry 'still see us as slaves', and he was later dropped by his management. 

Both Rashford and Lingard were quick to distance themselves from the rapper, with the former sharing a detailed apology to his social media accounts. 

'This picture has been brought to my attention which I understand now, given context, could easily be misconstrued,' Rashford wrote. 

'I would like to reinforce that I do not and will not condone discriminative language or behaviour of any kind aimed at the Jewish community or any other community.

'I truly believe that tackling antisemitism in and outside of the game requires a greater level of attention and should very much form part of the game's anti-racism stance.'