Manchester United goalkeeper Paul Woolston was forced to retire from professional football at the age of 23 this week.
Woolston had two operations a year ago on an unspecified injury and has been unable to return to full fitness.
That means he has had to come to a tough decision and gave an extended interview to the club’s official website about his time with the club.
In it, he paid tribute to the club’s goalkeeping department, with special praise reserved for David de Gea, who he called the best goalkeeper in the world.
“Once I settled into things at United, coming into the Under-23s squad, I had the privilege of training with some unbelievable players,” he said.
“The goalkeeper group here is incredible. For me, David De Gea is the best goalkeeper in the world – there aren’t words for some of the things he does in training.
“But behind him you’ve got Deano (Dean Henderson) pushing him hard, Tom Heaton, Lee Grant… the club has some of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League.
“As a young lad coming through you learn just from watching them, but they’re always full of advice to help you as well. The club really has built a great group of lads there.”
De Gea must have been such a good goalkeeper for Woolston to learn from when he was involved in first team training.
In terms of shot-stopping, there is not a better goalkeeper in world football and as Woolston says, there are high-quality English goalkeepers pushing him.
Henderson would be number one for a host of Premier League clubs and that might prove to be the case if he feels he needs to leave for more first team football in the summer.
We all wish Woolston well with the next stage of his life, whatever comes next, because this cannot have been an easy week.
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