SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Jose Mourinho has defended his decision to call for Marcus Rashford to miss England's European U-21 Championship campaign in Poland last month, insisting it would have been "too much" for the Manchester United teenager.
Rashford, 19, had been expected to travel with the Under-21s to the tournament in June until England manager Gareth Southgate accepted Mourinho's assertion that the youngster's progress had taken him beyond the junior team.
And although Rashford was called into the senior England squad for the games against Scotland and France at the end of the season, his campaign ended in early-June, enabling him to have a month-long break from the game.