Manchester United welcome Nottingham Forest to Old Trafford for their penultimate Premier League fixture of the season today. The fixture falls almost four years on from Dean Henderson's publicly speaking out about his boyhood club while on loan at the City Ground.
Henderson spent the 2022/23 campaign on loan at newly-promoted Forest and publicly criticised his parent club just a month after making the move. The goalkeeper had served as David de Gea's understudy the previous season, managing just three appearances across all competitions.
He described that year as the most challenging of his career. Henderson also contracted COVID-19 during that spell, which developed into long COVID, severely affecting his summer and pre-season preparations.
Henderson's frustration with United
The England international told talkSPORT: "To be honest, it has probably been the toughest 12 months of my career. It has been tough, hard, and I am so happy I have gone out the other end of it."
Henderson claims United assured him he would be their first-choice keeper for the following season. The academy graduate recalls: "The conversation I had coming out of the Euros squad was 'you're coming back here to be the No.1.' I got COVID, came back, so I should have still been the No.1. But then, unfortunately, nobody followed through with what they had told me."
"It was frustrating because I turned down so many good loans last summer for that reason, and they would not let me go. To sit there and waste 12 months, it is criminal, really, at my age. I was fuming. I worked hard off the pitch and on the training pitch to keep improving, day in and day out."
Bypassing Ten Hag
Erik ten Hag took over as United boss that summer, permanently succeeding Ole Gunnar Solskjaer following Ralf Rangnick's spell as interim manager. Henderson, though, had already made up his mind to depart and communicated that to the club before they even confirmed the appointment.
He said: "I didn't really want the manager to come in and see me in training because I knew that he'd probably want to keep me, so I tried to do it all before I left for the season. I told the hierarchy that I need to be playing football, I don't want to be here and play second fiddle; it was planned out. I was almost gone before the manager came through the door. I have not spoken to him since."
Crystal Palace paid £15million, plus £5million in add-ons, for Henderson the subsequent summer, and he continues to play there three years on. The shot-stopper has racked up over 100 appearances for the south London outfit, lifting the FA Cup and Community Shield.
