Marcus Rashford DROPPED by Barcelona despite stunning Newcastle brace – after star ‘arrived late for pre-match meeting’

Marcus Rashford was left out of Barcelona’s starting line-up against Getafe after arriving late to a pre-match meeting, according to reports in Spain.

Rashford had starred for the Catalan giants in midweek with his stunning brace downing Newcastle in the Champions League.

The expectation was that Rashford would keep his place in the side amid the continued absence of Lamine Yamal due to injury.

Rashford was instead named as a substitute by Hansi Flick, with Ferran Torres taking his placed in the starting line-up.

According to Mundo Deportivo, Rashford was dropped due to arriving late for a team meeting on Sunday morning as the team gathered for a one hour pre-match activation session.

Rashford was reportedly two minutes late to the meeting, which was said to have been caused by him still needing to electronically fill out information the club requests each day when they join up with the team.  

According to the report, Barcelona boss Hansi Flick has imposed a strict rule requiring players to present on time for meetings and training.

Under the rule, players who are late are reportedly not chosen in the starting line-up even if they were initially due to play.

Rashford had previously been dropped while at Man United by his former boss Erik ten Hag for missing a team meeting in December 2022 after oversleeping.

The forward is far from the first to fall foul of Flick’s rule at Barcelona.

Last week, Raphinha was named among the Barcelona substitutes after arriving late for an activation session.

Raphinha came off the bench in the match to score a brace in a 6-0 win over Valencia.

Jules Kounde and Inaki Pena had also been left out of matches previously by Flick for similar reasons, with the former late on two occasions.

Kounde has reportedly since asked for security to provide him with more notice in order not to be late again.