Aston Villa manager Unai Emery said he faces "huge challenges" to help revive Marcus Rashford's career but is ready to "harness" his potential .

The striker borrowed from Manchester United for the rest of the season to buy a £40m option.

Rashford, who has not competed since December, has been criticized by co-man Ruben Amorim, who said in Portuguese that he couldn't let him see his way of thinking.

The 27-year-old, who has scored seven goals in 24 games this season at Manchester United, has trained this week and may face Tottenham Hotspur in the fourth round of the FA Cup at Villa Park on Sunday (17:35) GMT).

"My challenge to him was a huge challenge. His challenge to us is exciting," Emory said.

“I don’t want to know why he left from Manchester, but I’m happy to keep him here and I’m happy to be able to take advantage of and help him resume his performance alone and collectively.

“My conversation with him was with the players and the coach, talking about football very normal. I just hope he has the best football.

“I think he has great potential to exploit.”

Rashford with Marco Asensio, Axel Disasi, Donyell Malen and Andres Garcia (Andres Garcia) signed in the transfer window together, but forward Malen and defender Garcia were excluded from Villa's Champions League team.

The club can only register three additional players for the knockout stage according to UEFA rules, which means that Mullen, arriving from Dortmund and Garcia, from Levante, were omitted.

Emery said: "The rule can only register three changes. We made more changes in the transfer window than we wanted, and we even lost a player on the roster because Jaden Philogene (joined) Ipswich) is a club-trained player, we lost maybe through him another one.

“We changed five players and only we can register three. We have to make the decision and they have been out, Andres Garcia and Doyel Mullen.

"It was not a good decision, but I talked to Andres and Donyell and told them that I made the decision with them."

Villa will not face the Spurs after suffering a groin injury in a 2-0 win over Wolves on Saturday, while Chelsea Loayee Disasi) was won.

"For him (Watkins), his feelings are important. For Sunday, he will not be available because he doesn't train today and he won't train tomorrow," Emory added.