David de Gea’s uncertain future is keeping Manchester United’s goalkeepers in a state of flux, according to one of their reserves, Sam Johnstone, with the 22-year-old saying he does not know if the club will loan him to Preston North End as had been expected.

Louis van Gaal dropped De Gea for United’s 1-0 victory over Tottenham on Saturday. Johnstone, whose 208 minutes were the most played by a United No1 on the summer tour, had been in contention to replace De Gea, whose desire to sign for Real Madrid was felt to be a distraction by the manager.

But while Van Gaal decided to choose Sergio Romero to face Tottenham, Johnstone is still unclear whether he will move to Preston again, having spent the second half of last term there.

“I’m not sure. Nothing’s been said really,” said Johnstone. “We’re waiting on different situations and have to see how it pans out.”

Beyond De Gea’s future, Victor Valdés can leave the club after he was left out of the tour due to Van Gaal’s disappointment regarding his attitude. While the Spaniard has a year remaining on his contract, the manager’s fourth keeper, Anders Lindegaard, has also fallen down the pecking order.

Asked if Johnstone would need Valdés and Lindegaard to remain at United for him to go to Preston, he said: “Well, hopefully, because I need to play games but on the other hand I am contracted here to Manchester United so I have to see what happens here first. So it does have a knock-on effect on me.

“I finished last season on a high playing [for Preston] in the play-off final at Wembley with my hometown club, so I need to kick on from that but hopefully if I am involved a lot I can still learn here. And if I wasn’t getting the game time here then I could go on loan later in the season. That’s another possibility so we will have to see what happens.”

Simon Grayson, the Preston manger, had said he would wait for Johnstone. “Yeah, I appreciated that they waited until last weekend. They had to bring someone in because they had their first game on Sunday,” he said. “But if I get the chance to go out on loan I would still like to go back.”

Johnstone claimed it was no issue having to work with the uncertainty. “No, it doesn’t cause problems,” he said. “We just carry on. The manager has said that David has gone about his business in the right way. And we stick together. Whoever plays, the other keepers are behind him. And you have to realise that we are working with the goalkeeper who is going to play to prepare him for the game. We are friends but there is a healthy rivalry.

“They may have individual problems but they don’t bring them to the training with us. You just have to concentrate on yourself. But no, they are not letting anything affect the other goalkeepers.”

Johnstone added he knew on Thursday, two days before the Spurs match, that Romero would start. “It was a difficult decision for the manager – he said it to everyone. But he obviously knew who was going to play. And we found out on Thursday,” he said. “That was good because it gave whoever was going to play time to get their head round it and prepare for the game.

“I’ve said it before, you’ve always got to be ready.. I’ve been at the club since I was 10 so it would be a dream come true to play in the first team. I felt I didn’t do too bad on the pre-season tour but I was supportive of Sergio when he was selected. I played in all four games on the tour and thought I did well but the manager has gone with his decision and you have got to respect that. Like I said, I was fully behind Sergio. He has not had long to settle in but I thought he played well. It is not easy, no matter how much experience he has got, to come in. He’s only been with us for two weeks, not played a game, but had to go into the first home game of the season at Old Trafford. I thought he did well.”