Revealed: When Andre Onana will depart for 2023 AFCON as Man Utd enter talks with Cameroon to delay goalkeeper's departure

Andre has been called up to the Cameroon squad for the 2023 AFCON tournament. The team are due to play a friendly against Zambia in Saudi Arabia on January 9 before opening up their campaign against Guinea on January 15. Onana has asked to delay his departure so that he can feature in United's FA Cup third-round tie against Wigan on January 8. United are also in talks with Cameroon regarding his departure and hope to have Onana available for the cup game and their following match against Tottenham in the Premier League on January 14, according to Mail Sport. Onana would then fly out to Ivory Coast just in time for Cameroon's opening match.

United are only scheduled to play two games in January but clearly want to have their first-choice stopper available for both matches. If Onana does play against Tottenham and Cameroon fail to get out of the group stages at the tournament, then their goalkeeper could return without missing a match for United. However, if Cameroon go all the way, then Onana will miss four games. Erik ten Hag does have other options if needed, with summer signing Altay Bayindir set to replace Onana if he is forced to skip games due to international duty.

United have lost nine of their first 20 league games in a season for the first time since 1989-90; it's as many defeats as they suffered in the whole of 2022-23.

Onana is expected to play for United in the FA Cup on Monday but it remains to be seen if his next match after that game will be for club or country.