Chris Smalling feels Marcus Rashford is bound to break records at Manchester United if he stays injury free.

The 19-year-old broke into the first team at Old Trafford under Louis van Gaal in 2015-16 and has since developed into an important first-team member.


He initially endured something of a difficult start to this season, going over three months without a goal following his strike in the 4-1 win over Leicester City back in September, but ended his drought at the weekend as he scored twice to help United see off Reading.

Wayne Rooney equalled Bobby Charlton's all-time scoring record of 249 competitive goals in that game and Smalling believes Rashford can achieve similar things.

"I think if Marcus can stay injury free there is no stopping him in terms of what sort of records he could get," Smalling told reporters.

"It is good to put the pressure on him because he can handle it and he has shown that.

"He has gone from one level to the next.

"We saw his performance [against Reading], the amount of chances he created. He could have had more goals and still ended up with two."

Rashford has some way to go before potentially thinking about matching Rooney and Charlton, having scored 14 goals in all competitions in his career.