“This breaks my heart” - Former KKR captain reacts to star player leaving Manchester United during PL 2024-25

Former Kolkata Knight Riders captain Nitish Rana took to social media on Tuesday, February 4, to share his disappointment over Marcus Rashford's loan move to Aston Villa for the rest of the 2024-25 Premier League season. The star English forward leaves Manchester United after scoring 138 goals and registering 63 assists in 426 appearances for the club.

The 27-year-old United forward had a fallout with head coach Ruben Amorim and has not featured for the club in the last 12 matches. Rashford has scored four goals and provided one assist in 15 appearances for United during the 2024-25 Premier League season. Meanwhile, the club has been facing challenges, currently sitting in 13th place in the league with 29 points.

On February 2, Rashford took to Instagram to express his excitement about the move, writing:

"I would like to thank Manchester United and Aston Villa for making this loan deal happen. I was lucky to have a few clubs approach me but Aston Villa was an easy decision - I really admire the way that Aston Villa have been playing this season, and the managers’ ambitions."

"I just want to play football and am excited to get started. I wish everyone at Manchester United all the best for the rest of the season,” he continued.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Indian cricketer Nitish Rana took to Instagram Stories to share Marcus Rashford's post about his move to Aston Villa, expressing his disappointment and writing:

“This breaks my heart.”

Screenshot of Nitish Rana's Instagram story.

The southpaw made his debut for India in an ODI against Sri Lanka in 2021, where he scored just seven runs. During the same tour, Rana also made his T20I debut, playing in two matches and accumulating 15 runs.

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Nitish Rana to play for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2025

The Kolkata Knight Riders won the IPL 2024 under Shreyas Iyer, securing their third title in history. However, Nitish Rana played only two games that season, missing most of the tournament due to injury. As a result, the Uttar Pradesh cricketer was not retained by the franchise ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction.

The 31-year-old was picked up by the Rajasthan Royals for INR 4.20 crore and will represent them in the 2025 season. Overall, Nitish has played 107 IPL matches, scoring 2,636 runs, including 18 half-centuries.