MANCHESTER, England -- It was around 3 a.m. on Monday when Greater Manchester Police received the first report that the mural of Marcus Rashford in the south of the city had been vandalised.
A few hours earlier, 200 miles away at Wembley Stadium, Rashford and England teammates Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka had missed penalties in a shootout to decide the Euro 2020 final and Italy had lifted the trophy as a result.
In the time in between, the three players, all Black, had been subjected to a wave of racist abuse on their social media accounts (police have since arrested four people.