Ben Foster is expected to take his first steps towards usurping Edwin van der Sar as Manchester United's first-choice goalkeeper when he makes his debut for the club away to Derby County tomorrow.

As initiations go, Foster could probably not have asked for an easier one. Derby remain firmly entrenched at the bottom of the Barclays Premier League after a 6-1 thrashing at the hands of Chelsea on Wednesday, but while the prospect of leapfrogging Arsenal is likely to figure foremost in Sir Alex Ferguson's thoughts, the sight of Foster making his long- awaited bow will doubtless please the United manager, who has high hopes for his young goalkeeper.

Foster was widely expected to challenge Van der Sar for the No1 jersey this season before a serious knee injury put paid to those plans, but after nine months out, the 24-year-old is ready to embark on what he hopes will be the start of a handover of the goalkeeping gloves at Old Trafford.

With Van der Sar unlikely to be back until the match against Liverpool on Sunday week after suffering a groin injury and Tomasz Kuszczak suspended, Foster can also expect to start against Bolton Wanderers next Wednesday. Ferguson believes that the experience could be invaluable as he seeks to cultivate a player who excelled on loan to Watford.

While Ryan Giggs is also expected to return against Derby after missing the past four matches with knee and calf problems, the match is likely to come too early for Gary Neville, another United player on the mend. But the defender is hoping to be involved with the first team again soon after emerging unscathed from a 73-minute run-out for the reserve team in a 1-0 defeat away to Sunderland's second string on Wednesday.

It will be a year on Monday since Neville's most recent appearance for the first team, but while a succession of ankle and calf injuries raised doubts about his long-term future, the United captain is determined to come back stronger and could play a part against Bolton Wanderers at Old Trafford.

“It's great to be playing football again,” Neville said after his appearance against Sunderland. “That's my second game in a couple of weeks and I seem to have come through it OK.

“In that sense it's a real positive. By next week I'd like to be involved with the first team, even if it's just travelling with the side and being part of it again. Hopefully, I've seen the back of it []now. I just need to concentrate on training hard and playing well. It's been a frustrating period, but I am not the first footballer to be out for 12 months. You have to get on with it.”

Any lingering hopes United may have had of prising Karim Benzema from Lyons in the summer were dashed yesterday when the France striker signed a new long-term contract. The 20-year-old has agreed a deal that will tie him to the club until the summer of 2013, with the option of a further year. His previous contract ran until 2012.

Jean-Michel Aulas, the Lyons president, has already placed a £70million valuation on Benzema, who has drawn favourable comparisons with the likes of Ronaldo and Zinédine Zidane and yesterday had Michel Platini, the Uefa president, purring. “He []scores more with his intelligence than his physical qualities and I like that,” Platini said.