Onana refuses to be caught cold

WHEN Manchester United first considered delaying Andre Onana’s departure for the Africa Cup of Nations to play in the third round of the FA Cup, the Cameroon goalkeeper probably did not expect it to be on an icy Monday night at Wigan. Onana could have been lining up for Cameroon against Zambia in a warm-up in Jeddah today, where the temperature in Saudi Arabia will probably be touching 30°C. Instead, he was stepping out at the DW Stadium last night, where the thermometer struggled to reach two degrees above freezing at kick-off. The United goalkeeper will stay back for one more game, at home to Tottenham on Sunday, before departing for Ivory Coast, where Cameroon meet Guinea on Monday in Yamoussoukro. It was an even hotter 35°C there yesterday. Even then, it’s unlikely that he will be expected to play two games in 24 hours, with his distant cousin Fabrice Ondoa expected to start the Group C opener. Onana’s availability around Afcon has turned into something of a saga, largely down to manager Erik ten Hag still playing cat-and-mouse with the media. ‘We will see what happens,’ said Ten Hag cryptically before kick-off last night, even though it has been known for a week now that Onana would be in goal against Spurs. ‘We have three good goalkeepers. If he wasn’t available, we have two players. But we’re happy he’s still there.’ If anything, it has put added pressure on a keeper whose £47.2million summer move to Old Trafford hasn’t always gone to plan. By fighting so hard to keep the former Inter Milan man, it makes him look almost indispensable while sending out a rather dispiriting message to his No 2 Altay Bayindir and fellow back-up Tom Heaton. So there was more focus on Onana here than there might otherwise have been for a third-round cup tie against League One opposition. Thankfully for United, he stepped up to the plate. The pivotal moment came as early as the third minute when Martial Godot picked out Thelo Aasgaard unmarked at the far post, but Onana rushed out to make a crucial save from the Liverpool-born forward. Who knows what kind of night this could have been for United had that gone in? There wasn’t much else for Onana to do — although United were lucky that Godot could not get a firmer touch in front of goal just before the half hour mark — but he was there when it mattered. At least it was worth the effort.