Henderson admits avoiding Ten Hag to force move away from Man Utd

England goalkeeper Dean Henderson has taken an astonishing swipe at parent club Manchester United, admitting he did not want new manager Erik ten Hag to see him train as he feared the Dutch coach would want to keep him.

Henderson recently signed a deal with newly promoted Nottingham Forest for a season-long loan, having made only five appearances in all competitions for United in 2021-22.

Speaking to talkSPORT, the 25-year-old said he was “so happy” to leave Old Trafford, and claimed he had been promised a role as number one at the club prior to getting COVID-19 last season.

“To be honest with you, it’s probably been the toughest 12 months of my career,” he said. “I’m so happy I’ve got out the other end of it now, and I’m excited to be here and ready to go.

“The conversation I had [with United following Euro 2020] was ‘you’re coming here to be the number one goalkeeper’. I got COVID, come back, so I should have still been the number one, but then unfortunately no one followed through with anything.

“It was so frustrating as well because I turned so many good loans down last summer for that reason, and they wouldn’t let me go, so it was frustrating. To sit there and waste 12 months is criminal really at my age, I was fuming.

“But I worked hard off the pitch and on the training pitch to keep improving day in, day out, so I’m really excited to be back here and looking forward to the season with Forest.”

Henderson has been with the Red Devils since the age of 14 and has 49 top-flight appearances to his name, but found himself largely acting as understudy to David de Gea at United.

After successful loan spells with Sheffield United and earning international recognition with England in an impressive 2019-20 campaign, Henderson hoped to establish himself, but at the end of last season he was determined to get his move, revealing he deliberately avoided letting Ten Hag observe him in training.

“I didn’t really want the manager to be able 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 before I left for the season. I told all the hierarchy ‘I need to go and play football, I don’t want to be here playing second fiddle’,” Henderson said.

“I was almost gone before the manager came in the door and I haven’t spoken to him since.”

Henderson is set to make his Forest debut when they start their Premier League campaign at Newcastle United on Saturday.