Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag is set to hold showdown talks with Andre Onana over his decision to return to international duty with Cameroon.
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The £47million summer signing hung up his national team gloves at the end of last year after falling out with manager Rigobert Song, even leaving the World Cup in Qatar early to fly home.
But he ended his exile this month after the Cameroon football federation and even the government helped broker peace talks, with Onana keeping a clean sheet in a 3-0 win over Burundi on Tuesday to secure qualification for January’s Africa Cup of Nations.
While that is good news for Cameroon, it has presented something of a headache for United with the goalkeeper potentially missing as many as nine matches in all competitions.
To add further drama into the mix, The Mirror are reporting that the 27-year-old never brought up the prospect of ending his international retirement during transfer talks and even told Ten Hag he had no intention of returning.
Ten Hag will now hold showdown talks with his goalkeeper to ascertain whether he plans to represent Cameroon at the African Cup of Nations, or whether his outing was simply a one off.
The Dutch coach is hoping it is the latter and ideally does not want his number one keeper playing in the month-long tournament, particularly when there are significant question marks over the backup options.
United brought in Altay Bayindir on deadline day as a late replacement for Dean Henderson, who joined Crystal Palace, but the Turkish keeper is yet to make his debut.
Tom Heaton, who is now 37, is another potential option but ideally Ten Hag is hoping that Onana decides against playing at the Africa Cup of Nations, with the former Inter keeper believed to still be undecided about his long-term international future.
Ten Hag was asked about Onana’s decision to return to Cameroon duty before the international break, saying: ‘I know everything about it, of course we spoke about it.
‘We are in good contact with Andre. We are on the same page. We know how we constructed the squad and can deal with it, if we need to.’
The African Cup of Nations takes place between January 13 and February 11 meaning Onana would miss Premier League games against Tottenham, Wolves, West Ham and Aston Villa if Cameroon reach the final of the tournament.
There are also two rounds of FA Cup ties and potentially a two-legged Carabao Cup semi-final scheduled over that period as well, while a last-16 Champions League match could be played just 48 hours after the AFCON final, meaning there are a total of nine matches where United could be without Onana.
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