Aston Villa forward Marcus Rashford has come under criticism for his appearance at a boxing event, just hours after the Villans were knocked out of the FA Cup in a resounding defeat at the hands of Crystal Palace.
Unai Emery’s side fell to a humbling 3-0 defeat at the hands of Crystal Palace at Wembley to exit the FA Cup in the semi-finals, with the Manchester United loanee conspicuously absent in Villa’s match-day squad.
However, the 27-year-old was one of a host of celebrities who turned out at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in North London for the boxing contest between Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn.
Rashford joined the likes of Declan Rice, Idris Elba, Maya Jama and Villa team-mate Ollie Watkins at ringside to take in the atmosphere before Eubank Jr claimed a unanimous decision victory over Conor Benn.
Video quickly spread online of Rashford, wearing sunglasses, walking to his seat while carrying a fizzy soft drink. Villa boss Unai Emery revealed that Rashford’s absence from the match was due to a hamstring injury, which could rule him out for a number of weeks.
Emery also issued an apology to the club’s fans who made the trip to the capital: “I’m sorry for our supporters. We were very motivated and we wanted to share our moment with them here in the semi-final.”
He added, “We have to accept how we lost this match, because Crystal Palace played very well and we didn’t perform like we are usually doing.”