Could Marcus Rashford follow five frozen out and, erm, heated up again?

Marcus Rashford has not ruled out a Man Utd return and could embark on the sort of redemption arc which embarrassed Real Madrid and Jose Mourinho.

Here are five players who were frozen out and then brought back in from the cold by the same manager.

Jadon Sancho
Arsenal beating Man Utd in September 2023 had weirdly significant long-term ramifications.

It featured a few refereeing decisions which melted Erik ten Hag’s entire head so thoroughly he was complaining about the apparent injustice of them – completely unprompted – in press conferences to baffled journalists six whole months later. And it marked the probable end of an Old Trafford career which is still technically ongoing.

“For his performance in training, we didn’t select him. You have to reach a level every day at Manchester United,” said Ten Hag after the game.

That same evening, Jadon Sancho suggested his manager’s reasoning was ‘completely untrue’, that there were ‘other reasons for this matter that I won’t go into’ and that he was being made ‘a scapegoat’.

The England international was swiftly banned from first-team facilities and withdrawn from selection until and unless he issued an apology to Ten Hag for publicly branding him a liar. When neither side blinked, Sancho was sent to Borussia Dortmund on loan in January and reached an actual Champions League final while still in the Man Utd wilderness.

But the can was merely kicked down the road and, perhaps realising the value of a potentially saleable asset was being wilfully tanked over a petty disagreement, Sancho was invited back into the fold after private talks with Ten Hag.

The Dutchman’s stance was softened to the extent that a player he swore would never play for him again without a show of contrition was being used frequently in pre-season and discussed as an attacking option for the campaign ahead, even though the situation had ostensibly not changed.

It might well have been a ploy to remind Chelsea of the existence of a wide forward they could throw money at. The Blues are still torn over whether to spend £25m to sign him or £20m less to send him back. Sancho, who made his return under Ten Hag with a seven-minute Community Shield cameo before having a penalty saved in the subsequent shoot-out, might want to introduce himself to Ruben Amorim soon.

Trevoh Chalobah
Around a dozen players were assigned to the great Chelsea ‘bomb squad’ of 2024, but only one has controlled the explosion of transfers well enough to prove they might have a future at Stamford Bridge.

While Kepa Arrizabalaga, Ben Chilwell, Raheem Sterling, Djordje Petrovic, Carney Chukwuemeka, David Datro Fofana, Armando Broja, Deivid Washington and Andrey Santos will soon return from loans with their future beyond the end of this season painfully unclear, Chalobah has already been snatched back from the comforting arms of Crystal Palace by a Chelsea side panicking about defensive injuries.

Oliver Glasner said the centre-half “wants to stay” and complete a fulfilling spell in south London, but the hands of the player and borrowing club were essentially tied by a recall clause inserted into Chalobah’s contract.

A matter of months after he was given the time-honoured Chelsea treatment of being barred from first-team facilities, Chalobah was back and playing for Enzo Maresca from January having been made publicly available for sale in each of three transfer windows.

The 25-year-old even had his shirt number stripped away and handed to Joao Felix, who himself was sent out on loan to AC Milan 20 days after Chalobah was recalled. Chelsea remain a fundamentally ridiculous institution.

Carlos Tevez
The recent revelation that Tevez “did not adjust to the English culture” and refused to learn the language because of a personal issue dating back to the Falklands War would have come as no surprise to those who worked with him during his seven Premier League years.

An entirely transactional relationship with the country translated to one season at West Ham, two with Man Utd and four at Manchester City, the majority of which he spent explaining at great length how he wanted to leave.

Tevez joined in July 2009, made and withdrew a written transfer request in December 2010, again underlined his desire to leave in June 2011 and reportedly told an Argentine chat show he “will not return to Manchester ever – not even on holiday” when his contract expired, started 2012 on gardening leave and finally left in 2013.

A precarious relationship between player and club came to a head during a Champions League game against Bayern Munich in September 2011, when Roberto Mancini claimed Tevez “refused” to come on as a second-half substitute. The forward insisted he only “refused to keep warming up” but the manager was adamant that “if I have my way he will be out. He’s finished with me.”

Tevez was instructed to stay away from the training ground and paid in full with an eye on a solution being found in January. When no such move materialised, Mancini opened the door for a return after an apology and a significant fine.

Almost six months after the Bayern bench debacle, Tevez declined the funniest option possible when Mancini called on him as a substitute in a home game against Chelsea in March 2012. He came on to help inspire a late victory and played a crucial role thereafter in their dramatic title win, including helping get Joey Barton sent off on the final day.

READ MORE: The ten greatest Argentinean players in Premier League history

David Beckham
In yet more proof that Real Madrid are the most painfully insecure entity to have ever existed, new president Ramon Calderon seamlessly transitioned from mocking Beckham for “going to Hollywood to be half a film star” who “no other technical staff in the world wanted except Los Angeles”, to desperately exploring an escape clause in the deal tying him to LA Galaxy that summer.

“For me, I would love it if he stayed at our club,” said a grovelling Calderon after Beckham responded to being banished by Fabio Capello by producing career-best form at the Bernabeu to galvanise their La Liga title bid.

Two days after Beckham announced his LA Galaxy move, Capello said he “will train with the team but he won’t play”. That stance lasted all of one single solitary month as consecutive defeats to Villarreal and Levante left Real four points behind and prompted a sudden recall.

Beckham whipped in a free-kick equaliser on his return against Real Sociedad and provided four assists in the run-in as Real won seven of their final eight games, drawing the other, to pip Barcelona to the crown.

Bastian Schweinsteiger
“He’s in the category of players that I feel sorry for something that I did to him. I don’t want to speak about him as a player, I want to speak about him as a professional, as a human being. The last thing I told him before he left ‘I was not right with you once, I have to be right with you now’,” said Jose Mourinho, who admitted “regret” at how he handled Schweinsteiger.

It was soon after Mourinho’s appointment at Man Utd that he demoted the Germany international and Bayern Munich legend from the first team and ordered him to train with the U21s for the apparent crime of being adjacent to Louis van Gaal.

Schweinsteiger’s suitability to the Premier League was debatable but taking such an unnecessarily hard line was curious and Mourinho conceded as much.

By October, Schweinsteiger was back in first-team training and in November he made his first Man Utd matchday squad under Mourinho, before finally being thrown a few bones in the League Cup, FA Cup and Europa League. By March, a more mutually satisfying conclusion was reached with a move to Chicago Fire.

Gary Neville was later “stunned and embarrassed” to hear first-hand how Schweinsteiger was treated. Preventing someone from training with Marouane Fellaini is practically inhumane.