Rashford has become a regular at Villa Park since arriving on loan from United in January, ousting Watkins as the club’s first-choice striker, but was notably absent at Wembley for one of his new side’s biggest games of the season.
The England international was left out of the squad completely, with Unai Emery confirming that Rashford had picked up a hamstring injury that could rule him out for a number of weeks.
The Villa boss gave a frosty response when asked about Rashford to the BBC, saying: “You know because you made the question before. I told you, he’s injured.”
Villa sorely missed Rashford against Palace, going down 3-0 to their Premier League rivals at Wembley thanks to a stunning goal from Eberechi Eze and a brace from Ismaila Sarr.
Emery issued an apology to the travelling fans who made the journey from Birmingham to London: “I’m sorry for our supporters. We were very motivated and we wanted to share our moment with them here in the semi-final. We have to accept how we lost this match, because Crystal Palace played very well and we didn’t perform like we are usually doing.”
Rashford was also seen greeting fans in one of the lounges at the stadium, but his appearance was questioned on social media due to the nature of Villa’s dismal defeat and the 27-year-old’s surprise absence.
But Rashford has long been a supporter of British boxing and met Ben Whittaker before his victory over Liam Cameron earlier this month.
He had only played against Leicester hours before travelling to the BP Pulse Live arena and linking up with Whittaker backstage before he took to the ring.
Rashford and Villa have a rare week-long gap between fixtures, next hosting Fulham on May 3, though judging by Emery’s comments it would be unlikely for the forward to feature. With only four fixtures left this season and lack of clarity of his future, Rashford may have played his last match for the club already.
