Ben FosterBen Foster has been tipped to be the future England number 1 and despite never playing competitively for the reds, the fans have high hopes for his future at the club.

Foster underwent cruciate knee ligament surgery in the summer, frustrated at not being able to fight for his place at United after completing a successful loan period with Watford.

He has now been training with the club for several weeks and is coming close to featuring for the Reserves, a big step towards playing first team football for United. Does this mean Van der Sar’s time is up?

“All is going well,” Foster said. “I’ve been training for the last two or three months. I started full time training about six weeks ago. All been good so far, no niggles or pain, so I’m looking to play a reserves game pretty soon. It’s a serious injury. I’ve been out for eight months. I always knew it would be tough this season. I’ve got to the stage now where I’m itching to go, but the physios are just having to hold me back. It’s frustrating, but you have to listen to them.”

The Reserve team play Liverpool on Tuesday which Foster is eager to feature in, but the medical staff have insisted he spends more time on the training ground before playing.

“The medical staff just want me to have a couple more weeks in training,” he said. “I’ve got to start from where I left off at the start of last season. I felt confident in myself in any given situation. Eight months out knocks you a bit. You forget tiny little things about your game that you need to think about. I’m working on my sharpness and my handling in training now. There’s a few things I’m going to work on. Kicking, cross-taking with players around me. I’ve got to do a bit of that, and then I’ll hopefully be ready to play for the reserves.”

United are approaching the crucial time in the season, and with us having little to complain about where Edwin Van der Sar is concerned, it could be questioned whether Foster will get much first team action in the remaining months. If United are still in the Cup competitions, they will be in the late stages by the time Foster would be ready, and with the title race so tight, every single point matters.

Would you like to see Foster get a decent amount of game time under his belt this season?