It was two months, 59 days to be exact, of being frozen out at Manchester United in what seemed like at times a campaign to dispense of Rashford. Ruben Amorim consistently brought up Rashford’s demeanour, standards in training and appeared to have no time for sulking.

Morgan Rogers had just scored Aston Villa’s second in the 2-1 FA Cup victory against Tottenham Hotspur and Villa’s players had gathered to the left of the Holte End, a cacophony encompassing them, but Emery remained fixated on preparing his two substitutes.

During Aston Villa’s warm-up there was a rare sighting, seldom seen on a football pitch lately: Marcus Rashford with a beaming smile on his face.