David de Gea could miss a month of matches

 

Dean Henderson has been told by Manchester United to prepare for a month as the No 1 goalkeeper due to David de Gea’s absence for personal reasons.

The Englishman has been desperate for a consistent run in the side and had to settle for cup games both domestically and in Europe to seize his chance.

But now he could have six matches across the next four weeks to prove his worth in the absence of De Gea from the line-up,

according to the Manchester Evening News.

Henderson could therefore start a run of important matches for United and stake his claim for the No 1 spot on a full-time basis.

Solskjaer was pleased with what he saw on Wednesday, saying: ‘That’s a Man Utd goalkeeper, sometimes you have to keep concentrating. He’s growing in that position. I thank him for one point and not zero.’

Henderson made one outstanding one-on-one stop from Patrick van Aanholt and his manager added: ‘Dean is ready if he’s

called upon, you saw that. He kept his concentration.

‘I think maybe it would have been called offside [against Van Aanholt] but at the moment I thought that Dean saved us a

point because it looked like that was a deciding moment and that was probably the biggest chance of the game, apart from Marcus in the first-half.’

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Having kept a clean sheet in the dour draw with Palace, Henderson will look to back-up his solid display against Manchester City in the derby this Sunday.

Next Thursday, United welcome AC Milan in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie before facing West Ham the following Sunday evening.