Wayne Rooney has said he believes Marcus Rashford is the only player at the club who can overtake him as Manchester United's all-time top scorer, but said he has limited sympathy amid a difficult season for the forward.

Rashford scored a career-high 30 goals in all competitions last season but has netted just seven times for United this campaign -- his latest coming in United's clash against Everton on Saturday.

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The 26-year-old forward was fined and left out of United's FA Cup fourth-round win over Newport County last month after visiting a Belfast nightclub before telling the club he was too ill to train. Rashford later said he feels he is treated too harshly by the media.

When asked by TNT Sports ahead of the Everton clash whether he has sympathy for Rashford, Rooney said: "Not much to be honest. He's in a privileged position where he's playing for Manchester United.

"I've said before, he's the one player I really believed could go and get my goalscoring record, and I hope he does because he's a Manchester lad, but he needs to hit some consistency.

"Of course, he's not having the best of seasons but he needs to find some form and consistency and become a leader of this team."

Rooney scored 253 goals in 559 games during a 13-year career at United, with Rashford just shy of half that total.

"I don't think Marcus is that type of player, I don't think he's a leader and sometimes his body language doesn't look the best from that point of view," Rooney said.

"For me I look at the likes of Casemiro, [Raphael] Varane, Bruno [Fernandes] as captain. They're players who should be getting that out of Marcus because sometimes you need your teammates to get more out of you as well."