Gary Neville believes Marcus Rashford is approaching the "inevitable ending" of his Manchester United career after the forward was again left out of the matchday squad on Sunday.
The 27-year-old England international will sit out a third successive game United prepared to face Bournemouth in the Premier League at Old Trafford. Rashford was also omitted by new manager Ruben Amorim for last weekend's 2-1 win at Manchester City and Thursday's 4-3 League Cup quarter-final loss at Tottenham.
Rashford, a product of the United youth system, told journalist Henry Winter on Tuesday he was "ready for a new challenge and the next steps", with former United and England full-back Neville believing little can now be done to stop a parting between player and club.
"It is not really big team news any more," Neville told Sky Sports shortly before Sunday's match. "It is something of a norm, a pattern has developed over the last week. It was a surprise last weekend.
"It is getting to the point where you leave him out three games on the bounce something really is obviously going wrong or has gone wrong and it is not looking great for both Marcus's future at the club or Manchester United keeping him either.
"I suspect it is getting to that point in the journey where it has got an inevitable ending."
Neville, now a pundit, added: "It is a distraction for the manager. It does become obvious that he probably has to leave and that the club want him to leave -- it will probably work for both parties.
"There are good examples as well of players who have struggled at United...Jadon Sancho has gone to Chelsea and is doing better, Scott McTominay wasn't struggling but he left to go to Napoli and he is doing well, so Marcus might think it is the right thing for him as well."
Amorim cited "selection" reasons for Rashford's absence in the previous two matches and did so again on Sunday, with the Portuguese boss, speaking before kick-off against the Cherries, saying: "It is my decision and it always will be.
"It is selection. I want to see the best of my players and I try different things with different players, so that is my focus."