Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has backed Marcus Rashford to threaten Wayne Rooney's goalscoring record for the club.

Rooney wrote his name into the history books with his 249th United goal during Saturday's FA Cup victory over Reading, drawing level with record goalscorer Sir Bobby Charlton's 44-year-old mark.

The 31-year-old, who is also England's record goalscorer, now looks certain to take an outright lead in the all-time list, but Mourinho believes that Rashford could eventually challenge that tally should he stay at Old Trafford.

"I don't know the distances, really, but I think the ones that are close are players that left United already," he told reporters.

"So, especially modern football I see really difficult. I don't know, who knows? Marcus, he is 19. If he plays for Man United until the end of his career, maybe Marcus can do it but Rooney scored a lot of goals."

Rashford ended a 17-match goal drought with a brace in the 4-0 win over Reading, and Mourinho was happy to see the youngster return to scoring ways.

"I spoke with him at half time. I told him that I don't care with the goals he missed in the first half because he had big responsibility in the way we were breaking their defensive line," he added.

"He was playing so well for us. One more goal, one less goal - it doesn't change. But obviously for an attacking player to score a goal means happiness, means confidence, so it was good for him."

Rashford only made his senior debut for United last February but already has 14 goals for the club.