Crystal Palace and Dean Henderson suffered a demoralising 3-0 defeat to Manchester United in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night.
The England international was handed his debut by Roy Hodgson following a £20m deadline day move to Selhurst Park – coincidentally from Manchester United.
Unfortunately, the Crystal Palace No.30’s debut ended after just 17 minutes when he was forced off through injury, appearing to tweak his thigh after kicking the ball.
As Dean Henderson trudged off to be replaced by Sam Johnstone, it feels as if Steve Parish has just taken a huge gamble at Crystal Palace…
Why Crystal Palace fans should be concerned about the Dean Henderson deal
Well, if this untimely injury occurred to a No.2 who arrived on a free transfer or in a cut-price deal, there would be nowhere near as much panic around the fanbase.
However, Henderson was not cheap at £20m, and somewhat surprisingly, the 26-year-old is now our highest earner following his move from Old Trafford, according to The Athletic, making roughly £100,000-a-week.
A separate report from The Athletic claimed that Nottingham Forest actually decided against signing the Whitehaven-born glovesman on a permanent basis after his loan at the City Ground last season, despite being tempted to do so, amid concerns over this thigh issue.
Henderson underwent surgery to repair a thigh injury back in January, an issue which ruled him out for the remainder of his loan spell at Nottingham Forest.
Therefore, the fact he has now suffered a reoccurrence of that same injury in his first appearance since going under the knife should send alarm bells ringing around Selhurst Park.
As things stand, the deadline day signing of Henderson is looking like it could turn out to be a huge waste of money, amid injury fears and the outstanding performances from Johnstone.
Hopefully, our £20m glovesman can shake off this niggling thigh problem, and become a key player at Selhurst Park in future.
