Tom Heaton believes Man United’s teammate Senne Lammens will bounce back well after Belgium’s World Cup woe. Lammens had erred in Belgium’s 2-1 quarterfinal loss to Spain when he spilt Pau Cubarsi’s 25-yard strike into the path of Mikel Merino, who scored in the 88th minute to send La Roja to the semis.

Lammens had replaced injured Thibaut Courtois and made his World Cup debut for the Red Devils.

“It was obviously a challenging moment for him, but I think that’s the life of a goalkeeper,” Heaton said following United’s 1-0 preseason friendly defeat to Wrexham in Helsinki.

“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. I actually think he’ll be stronger for it.

“I think his personality is fantastic for a goalkeeper, so no issues there. It’s obviously disappointing for him, but I do honestly think it can help him in the long run.”

Heaton is optimistic Lammens has the character to handle it at the top level.

“I’ve certainly seen that from him as a young goalkeeper coming into Manchester United and dealing with that unbelievably well,” Heaton said. “I highly doubt he’ll be going into [the next match] with fear or worrying about what may happen.

“It’s more about what you want to go and achieve, whilst also accepting if it happens you can deal with it.”

Meanwhile, Manchester United were able to finish at third place in the Premier League last season and Heaton is hopeful that they will carry the impetus.

“It feels like we’ve got some momentum,” Heaton said. “Obviously it’s been a bit of a strange [preseason] with the World Cup players sort of drip feeding back into the squad, so that’ll be staggered.

“But it’s just about continuing that momentum and making sure we get everyone up to speed as quickly as we possibly can.”