Zlatan Ibrahimovic has urged patience with Manchester United's Marcus Rashford.

There are so many enormous expectations on the teenage striker following his brilliant start to life at senior level for the Red Devils.

Last week, Rashford added extra pressure by scoring a hat-trick on debut for the England U21 team, prompting suggestions he will be called into Sam Allardyce's senior team for next month's World Cup qualifiers.

United fans are also calling for Jose Mourinho to start the 18-year-old more often at club level but Ibrahimovic believes there needs to be lowered assumptions on the promising forward who possesses all the qualities to become a superstar of the future.

"First of all, he's 18, he's still young. He has a lot of time," the Swedish ace told MUTV.

"I think the way you have to approach a player like that, where everyone is talking about the talent and what he's able to do and what kind of potential he has, is to remember he still has a lot of time. It's not like he needs to take over the world today, the club knows that, the coach knows that and the team knows that.

"We know his quality and what he's able to do. What the world is seeing now, we already know because we see it every day. There is no need to rush to push him and put him in the heat zone and put a lot of pressure on him because that can have the opposite effect.

"Time by time, he will take over everything. It's about having patience."