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Manchester United veteran Tom Heaton has thrown his support behind Senne Lammens after the 23-year-old Belgian\u2019s mistake at the World Cup, revealing how he will react to it next season.<\/p>\n
World Cup Heartbreak<\/h5>\n
After a superb debut season at Old Trafford following his \u00a318.1 million move from Royal Antwerp last year, Lammens was selected by Rudi Garcia as part of his squad for this summer\u2019s tournament in North America.<\/p>\n
Real Madrid superstar Thibaut Courtois is the undisputed starter for Belgium, having made 115 appearances for his country.<\/p>\n
Lammens was entrusted with the No. 2 role for the Red Devils, while Chelsea\u2019s Mike Penders was the third choice. This constituted a remarkable rise for the United man, given he only made his first appearance for Belgium in November.<\/p>\n
However, delight turned to disaster when Garcia summoned him from the bench in the quarter-final clash with Spain, after Courtois went down with a thigh injury in the 71st minute. Lammens entered the pitch with the game \u2013 his debut at a major tournament \u2013 poised at 1-1, with Charles De Ketelaere\u2019s header having cancelled out Fabian Ruiz\u2019s opener.<\/p>\n
But as the clock ticked past the 88th minute, Lammens made a mess of a speculative shot from distance by Pau Cubars\u00ed, spilling the ball into the path of the onrushing Mikel Merino, who converted to send Spain through to the semi-finals.<\/p>\n
Bounce back<\/h5>\n
Naturally, Lammens was devastated at the final whistle, with Courtois making a beeline to console his compatriot, as did Spanish No. 1 Unai Simon to show the goalkeeping brotherhood extends beyond borders.<\/p>\n
In a post-match interview, the Madrid shot stopper backed Lammens, stating: \u201cYou only get stronger from this. Eventually you cannot say much more to him or give him much more advice. He is a strong guy, strong personality. I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll be fine. You know, he will have some holidays and then regroup in Manchester and have a great season.\u201d<\/p>\n
This view is mirrored by his teammate at Old Trafford, with Heaton confirming he had spoken to Lammens after the quarter-final, but predicting he will \u201cbe stronger\u201d for the experience, as tough as it is in the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was obviously a challenging moment for him, but I think that\u2019s the life of a goalkeeper. As soon as you put the gloves on and go between the sticks, you have to be ready to deal with that. He certainly is,\u201d the 40-year-old stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually think he\u2019ll be stronger for it. His personality is fantastic for a goalkeeper, so no issues there. It\u2019s obviously disappointing for him, but as I say, I do honestly think it can help him in the long run. It\u2019s certainly tough but his personality is suited for it. He\u2019s very strong mentally and he\u2019ll be absolutely fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked whether it was the type of high-profile mistake which can haunt a goalkeeper in the future, Heaton was confident it would not.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat can happen at any point. Literally every time you cross the foot over the earth, so if that\u2019s your mindset and that\u2019s your outlook, then I\u2019d be more inclined to say it\u2019s more likely to happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s accepting the fact that it can happen, but what you want to try and do and go and embrace it? I\u2019ve certainly seen that from him as a young goalkeeper coming into Manchester United and dealing with that unbelievably well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI highly doubt he\u2019ll be going into it with fear or worrying about what may happen, it\u2019s more about what you want to go and achieve, whilst also accepting if it happens you can deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Final Thoughts<\/h5>\n
A report relayed by The Peoples Person<\/em> revealed Manchester United have planned to offer their full support to Lammens, imploring the team\u2019s leadership group, which includes Heaton, to \u201creach out to him to show their support.\u201d <\/p>\n But Heaton\u2019s assured stance on the mental resilience of his younger teammate is promising \u2013 and is backed up by United legend Gary Pallister, who in an exclusive interview with our commander-in-chief, Red Billy, claimed Lammens is \u201cstrong enough to put that behind him\u201d.<\/p>\n Feature image Orlando Ramirez via Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n The Peoples Person has been one of the world\u2019s leading Man United news sites for over a decade. Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 1 Manchester United veteran Tom Heaton has thrown his support behind Senne Lammens after the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thepeoplesperson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/affiliate-christmas-campaign-25-1500x300-en-uk-min.png\")
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