Dean Henderson prepared to LEAVE Man Utd in search of regular 1st-team football

Goalkeeper Dean Henderson is ready to leave Manchester United as soon as possible, according to a report, with David De Gea firmly established as interim manager Ralf Rangnick's No 1.

Henderson, 24, shared first-team duties with De Gea last season after returning from a successful two-year loan spell at Sheffield United, but has fallen behind the Spaniard this campaign, first under sacked Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and now Rangnick.

Respected transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano tweeted on Thursday: 'Dean Henderson's always been respectful and professional but he's now prepared to leave Manchester United. His priority is to play. Whether it will happen in January or summer, it will depend on the offers.' He added: 'NO talks ongoing with Ajax, as things stand.'

Henderson has made no secret of his desire to become an undisputed No 1 to enhance his prospects of playing for England, and could be allowed to leave either on loan or permanently in January with Tom Heaton, Lee Grant and Matej Kovar all on the United books as cover for De Gea.

Rangnick confirmed last week that De Gea was his No 1, while suggesting he was open to letting players depart as long as United have cover.

'We have quite a few top goalkeepers,' he said. 'We could see that against Young Boys, both goalkeepers [Henderson and Heaton] did well who played.

'With David de Gea we have a top goalkeeper as No 1. This is a position we have a minimum of three if not four or five good goalkeepers. We will see what the situation will be like in the winter.

'There might be one or two of them wanting to go on loan somewhere but we also have to bear in mind we have three competitions in the next six months – Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League – and we definitely need three top goalkeepers to make up for a player being injured or suspended.'

He added: 'If I look at the number of players we have it's still a big squad. We definitely don't have not enough players.

'We also need to make sure that players want to stay here. If they are see not getting enough game time here it might make sense to speak individually with the players and see if a loan deal might make sense.'