Altay Bayindir is finally set for his Man United debut against Newport County

Altay Bayindir will need to duck his head as he steps through the door of the cramped away dressing-room at Rodney Parade and makes a right turn towards the tunnel on Sunday.

Then the 6ft 6in goalkeeper will follow his teammates across an amber carpet that surrounds the pitch here and onto the grass for his Manchester United debut.

It will mark the end of a long wait for Bayindir since he joined United for £4.3million at the start of September. He has sat patiently on the bench for nearly five months while Andre Onana started every single game this season. But with Onana otherwise engaged at the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast, his understudy will finally get a chance to show what he can do in South Wales.

Bayindir's last first-team appearance of any kind came 16 miles down the road at Cardiff in November when he came on as a substitute in Turkey's Euro 2024 qualifier against Wales.

An FA Cup fourth round tie away to League Two opponents is probably not the scenario Bayindir would have selected to make his United bow and become the first Turkish player in the club's history. The 25-year-old will spend half the game with his back to a temporary stand that has boosted the capacity to 9,000.

Could it be a situation that Newport can exploit? 'We've got to get into United's half first,' jokes Newport boss Graham Coughlan. 'If we can get over the halfway line, then we might be able to test whoever the new goalie might be.

'We know that Onana won't be coming back, he's gone across to the Africa Cup of Nations and he's staying, so there will be a new face in goal. Whoever they put in, they are elite players, Premier League players, for a reason.

'Whether it's the debutant, we don't know. We'll deal with that on Sunday.'

Bayindir