West Ham midfielder Declan Rice has launched a passionate defence of Manchester United rival Paul Pogba.

Rice has been linked with United as a replacement for Pogba.

"He gets criticised but he's honestly one of the top three players I've ever played against," Rice told BT Sport.

"He's just so strong, so good on the ball. He can take the ball under a crazy amount of pressure and get out of it with an unbelievable bit of skill.

"He knows how to play one and two touch and can play long passes. He's so, so good and I think you see the best of him probably when he plays for France.

"Since he's been in the Premier League there have been a lot of opinions about him but he is unbelievable. My second game for West Ham was at Old Trafford, we lost 4-0 and I came on with half hour to go and he ran the show.

"I remember I went into a 50-50 with him, I hit him and I thought, 'what have I run into?', he was rock solid, he was so strong."