Manchester United great Wayne Rooney feels Marcus Rashford has found his best form thanks to pulling back from his off-field causes.

Rooney has urged his former team-mate to "just focus on his football" with Rashford the joint leading scorer at the World Cup so far and in fine form going into the knockout stages of the tournament.

"It looks like Marcus is in a much better place in his head and the big thing, for me, is that during covid he did so much campaigning work and got involved with a lot of stuff off the pitch," Rooney told The Times.

"His achievements were incredible, but I think it might have been a bit too much for him. Rather than being able to just focus on his football, there was a lot on his plate, whereas what we've seen this season is very much a focus on football first rather than anything else. From some of the goals he has scored, you can see he is in a different headspace.

"I watched Marcus develop at Manchester United and there are not many players with his speed and direct running at goal. You never know how much football players these days actually watch but I know from being in camps that at tournaments you sit around together watching a lot of games as a group."