Roy Hodgson has challenged Wayne Hennessey to “wrestle” the goalkeeper jersey back from Crystal Palace’s number one Vicente Guaita.
The Eagles boss brought in the Spanish shot-stopper on a free transfer in the summer after his contract expired with Getafe.
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And, after Hennessey was ruled out because of injury, Guaita took over the jersey and has now made 14 appearances between the sticks, with Wednesday’s outing in the 3-1 defeat against Manchester United at Selhurst Park being his 11th in the Premier League.
Hennessey is now back to full fitness and featured in the last two rounds of the FA Cup, but Hodgson has told him he still has work to do to fully oust Guaita from the first-team ranks.
He said: “At the moment, Vicente has the shirt. He came in when Wayne was injured and played very well, and he’s been able to keep Wayne on the sidelines since that time.
“Wayne also had two very good games for us in the FA Cup against Spurs and Doncaster. So we’re still fully aware that he’s available and a very serious competitor for the shirt.
“But only one of them can have it, and Vicente seems to have got his hands on it – it’ll be up to Wayne to wrestle it from him.”
