Jose Mourinho has confirmed Marcus Rashford will start in Manchester United’s Champions League opener away to Young Boys on Wednesday.

Rashford has not featured for United since he was sent off against Burnley prior to the international break, though he scored two goals in as many games while on duty with England.

Despite being suspended for Saturday’s Premier League win at Watford, Rashford was the subject of a long Mourinho rant ahead of the game, with United’s manager taking aim at media pundits who have criticised his use of the talented attacker.

Some have suggested Mourinho has not played Rashford enough and is in danger of wasting his potential, but the Portuguese coach reeled off a list of statistics that appeared to provide evidence to the contrary.

Rashford will return to the United line-up as their Group H campaign starts in Switzerland, though Mourinho asked the gathered reporters to not be too critical of those who are not included in his starting XI.

‘He is selected for the game,’ Mourinho said in his pre-match news conference.

‘But I just want to remind you, in advance, that we can only start with 11 players, so when tomorrow you see the team, you could try to speak about the ones who are going to play and not about the ones who aren’t.

‘We have [Romelu] Lukaku, Rashford, [Juan] Mata, Alexis [Sanchez], [Anthony] Martial and they cannot all play together.

‘Try to be a little happy for the ones who are playing, not critical of those not playing.’