London, Jul 14 (IANS): Manchester United and England striker Marcos Rashford has received an injury setback and it means he will miss the first two months of next season.

The 23-year-old, who was one of three England players subject to racist abuse after missing a penalty in Sunday's European Championship final, will be out of action until the end of October as he needs an operation on a shoulder injury, reports Xinhua.

The injury hindered the forward in the second half of the last season and also in the European Championships and the decision has been taken to deal with it once and for all with an operation after he underwent a scan on Tuesday.

The news means he will be out of action for around 12 weeks, missing pre-season training and the first two months of the campaign.

Although Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho received online racist abuse after their misses in the penalty shootout in Sunday's final against Italy, the three have also received the support of thousands of fans.

After a mural of Rashford was vandalised on Monday, the insults were covered up with many more messages in favour of the player and the mural was quickly repaired.

Rashford was already a popular figure in England due to his work in pressuring the UK government to ensure that underprivileged children continued to get free school meals during the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, Sancho on Tuesday completed a medical at Manchester United ahead of a move back to England from Borussia Dortmund.