Manchester United are waiting to be told whether Barcelona intend to trigger the £26m clause that would make Marcus Rashford’s transfer permanent.
The Spanish champions have a 15 June deadline to activate the deal following the 28-year-old’s loan spell last season.
As yet, there has been no official communication between the clubs. However, speculation has intensified over the past 24 hours that Barca will opt against completing the signing.
Barcelona – who are adamant a decision will come early next week – have already paid £69.3m for Newcastle forward Anthony Gordon, who is competing for an England starting spot with Rashford at the World Cup.
United have repeatedly said they are not willing to renegotiate and even sources close to the player feel the deadline will pass without agreement.
Potentially, that could place Rashford and the Old Trafford club in a difficult position.
He has one of United’s most lucrative contracts, which runs until 2028, and minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe wants to lower the top-level amounts being paid to the first-team squad.
Last summer, Rashford was placed in the ‘bomb squad’ by former boss Ruben Amorim before he sealed his loan move to Barcelona.
However, Michael Carrick’s relationship with him is far deeper, given he is both a former team-mate, coach and – for three games following Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s dismissal in 2021 – manager of one of the recent stars of United’s academy and currently the club’s 15th all-time highest goalscorer.
When Carrick was asked about Rashford in April, he said no decision had been made about the attacker’s future.
He added “whoever’s here, I want to work with, and help them improve”.
There is some breathing space with the situation even if the 15 June deadline passes.
Rashford would be entitled to three weeks off once England’s World Cup campaign concludes.
It means if the Three Lions went out in the quarter-finals, he wouldn’t be due back at United’s Carrington training ground until the first week of August, before the pre-season encounter with Paris St-Germain in Gothenburg on 8 August, which precedes a week-long training camp in the Republic of Ireland.
That offers a period for his future to be resolved, with numerous sources feeling it is not out of the question he returns to Barcelona on a different deal to the one currently in place.