Javier Hernandez may leave Manchester United due to limited playing opportunities

Hernandez pictured during a Mexico training session

Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez has confessed that he may have to part ways with Manchester United in order to get more first team football, The Mirror reports.

The Mexico international has only managed to start two games for David Moyes’s team this season and has been hailed as a super-sub for his knack of scoring goals after coming off the bench.

The 25-year-old insists that he is happy with the reigning Premier League Champions, but thinks that he should start more matches for the club or ply his trade elsewhere.

Spanish giants Atletico Madrid were interested in securing his services this transfer window as a replacement for Radamel Falcao. The forward is worried about the lack of game time afforded to him at Manchester United.

“I strive for that [to start more games],” said Hernandez who fired 20 goals in his first season with the English club in 2010.

“I am working towards that – earning a spot as a starter. I know that my performance on the pitch will allow me to achieve that goal someday either here [in Manchester] or elsewhere for any other club.

“I am going on four years here [at Manchester United] and really, like I have always said, I am happy to be able to play for one of the best clubs in the world, doing my best every single day to earn more minutes on the pitch.

“I just need to be given more opportunities to showcase what I can do, because all of us want to be able to contribute our part so this team can win championships.”

The Mexican acknowledges that gaining a starting place was tough with Robin Van Persie, Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck all hungry for first team action.

The limited playing time is frustrating for the striker, but he also views the competition as healthy for his betterment as a footballer.

“What better way to compete anywhere in the world than to compete with them?” said Hernandez. “The competition inside the team has always been really healthy and I think that helps the team a lot, because there are so many quality players that every one of them wants to earn a starting spot.

“The practices and matches coming up will force us to step up and help the team grow both at an individual and collective level.”

While speaking to Mexican TV Channel Deportes Telemundo, Chicharito shed some light on his pre-match custom of going on his knees and praying on the field- this arose after he nearly quit the game for good.

“There was a time when I went through a very difficult time at Chivas, when I had really lost all faith in myself and started to seriously wonder whether this was the path God had set out for me, to play football,” he explained.

“Everyone obviously knew I was the grandson of Don Tomas Balcazar and Javier ‘El Chicharo’ Hernandez’s son, so I always felt a little obligated to be a football player.

“That was what many people believed I was destined to do and what I had in mind as well, even though I had dreamed of being a professional football player ever since I was little.

“Football has always been in my blood and I have always loved the sport, so all that sort of carried me towards becoming a football player. That time of my life was very complicated for me but, thank God, things turned out well.

“I was very patient and lucky to have my family and loved ones as my pillars of support to be strong, to believe in myself again, and that is when I decided to thank God for every match I start in.

“I was so close to not playing football anymore, but now you can see my career made a turn for the best. Life and football can be that way, so I do it [his pre-kickoff prayer] as a way to say thank-you.”

Hernandez stated that his fellow Manchester United players fondly call him ‘Chica’, very little people call him by his given name.

“They call me a lot of things, but never Javier,” he said. “I wasn’t really even called that in Mexico, except by my family and some friends. I have always been ‘Chicharo’ or ‘Chicharito’ or also ‘Chicha’ here [in England], so yeah, I have been called many things.

“They never even called me by my name at school – it has always been the nickname I inherited from my father.”