Henderson on emotional journey to England landmark

Club

15 Oct 2024

Dean Henderson has spoken of the emotional ‘journey’ he has undertaken on the way to making his first start for England on Sunday.

The 27-year-old goalkeeper’s fine form for Crystal Palace led into a first-ever start for the Three Lions in their 3-1 win over Finland in Helsinki.

Henderson’s second England cap – and first for 1,431 days, having last featured against the Republic of Ireland in November 2020 – arrived at the culmination of a road paved with recent personal tragedy and a hefty demand for resilience.

The goalkeeper, who is mourning the recent passing of his father, Dougie, said: “It just shows you can never give up and you've got to bounce back and be resilient – and I'm proud to have done that because there have been difficult times.

“My old man, unfortunately, we lost him in the summer. It would have been great for him to be here to watch me. It's been emotional. He didn't miss any games.

"It would have been wonderful for him to be here to witness it. The journey we went on was phenomenal. I’ve just got to keep it continuing. I know I've just got to keep doing him proud.”

Henderson is also mourning the tragic recent passing of close friend and former Sheffield United teammate George Baldock, who passed away unexpectedly last week at 31 years of age.

“I don't even know what to say. I'm lost for words on it – still numb to this day,” Henderson said of the tragedy.

“The group of lads we had there, and what a big character he was, to lose him and just out of the blue… and obviously wondering, like, Annabel, his poor missus, and everything with the young boy, Brody… it’s such a shame.”

After such a difficult recent time, Henderson spoke of the poignancy of seeing his family in the stands at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium to celebrate his landmark international appearance – although achieving that itself was not without its challenges.

Henderson discovered he would be playing the day before the game – and took swift action to ensure his close family would be present.

“I found out on Saturday during training,” he revealed, “so it was a bit of a mad one, because obviously I wanted my mum and my missus to come out. We were trying to do last-minute flights to get them here.

“I had to go all out and get them over here on a [charter] plane, but I did it just because I knew that it was such a big thing for the family – I didn’t want them to miss it, so I was delighted they made it.

“It was fantastic. They were emotional in the stands. I could see that.”

As for England’s victory, Henderson outlined their early progress under interim manager Lee Carsley, explaining his goal was to build on the performances which have yielded back-to-back European Championship Final appearances for the Three Lions.

The goalkeeper said: “He [Carsley] is fantastic. He wants to play with confidence. He wants to control games of football and the boys are buying into that. The lads are loving it, and we'll take confidence into the next camp.

“We've got a big game against Greece and we've just got to go front-footed into that.”

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