Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has confirmed that Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford would be available for selection whenever the English Premier League returns after surviving the suspension caused due to the COVID-19 crisis.

“For them two, this gives them a chance to start on a par with, or even ahead of, other players if or when we get going, Solskjaer told Sky Sports as quoted by PTI via AP.

“Because they have been focused. Mentally it’s easier for them to train hard now because they can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Solskjaer added.

United’s highest scorer among current players and the most high profile player, Rashford and Pogba respectively, were sidelined before the footballing season was stopped amid the growing concerns of the situation caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Rashford had sustained a back injury in January but admitted in April that he was recovering well during the lockdown period.

“Yeah it’s good,” the 22-year-old had said, when asked how he’s getting on. “Obviously, I need to step it up a little bit now, but it’s difficult to do with not being in the training ground,” Rashford said in the latest edition of United podcast as quoted on the official website of the club.

Had it not been a lockdown and normal time prevailed, Rashford believed he would have come back to the United first-team and possibly set his eye on Euro 2020 at the end of the season.

However, he admitted that coming back to first-team football at the end of the April would have been a push and the lockdown has provided him with the adequate time to regain his fitness completely.

“Yeah, you know, for me, I was probably going to go back with the team towards the middle or end of April,” he adds. “But that would have been a push, obviously, because I didn’t want to miss the summer.

Pogba, on the other hand, was at his usual best in United’s Premier League opener against Chelsea before getting injured within the first 30 days. It took him nearly a month to be back against Rochdale in Carabao and Arsenal in Premier League.

But the World Cup-winner with France was sidelined again for another month. He made a solid comeback against Watford in the festive period before a surgery took him out again from which he is yet to make a comeback.

“I’m already training and touching the ball. I don’t even know how it feels like anymore. I can’t wait to have this feeling again. I miss it because that’s my job, to play football. I really enjoy playing football,” a fit-again Pogba told the Manchester United podcast as quoted by the club’s official website.