Regrets from the past are not really things to concern a live for the moment sort of person such as Marcus Hahnemann. Reading’s American goalkeeper does not lament the challenge from Blackburn’s Shabani Nonda that left him recovering all summer from two shattered metacarpal bones in his right hand. He is not even remorseful of the three goals that Cristiano Ronaldo put past him in the two Premiership meetings with Manchester United last season.

However he does wish he had taken the opportunity to savour his hitherto only experience of actually playing at Old Trafford and intends to make amends when Reading encounter the champions this afternoon and begin their bid to prove that the accomplishment of finishing eighth in a debut season in the top flight was not simply a case of over achievement with an average team punching above their weight.

When Hahnemann reported back for pre season training in late June, he could not even contemplate punching or even parrying the ball, his rehabilitation from surgery carried out on his damaged hand at Colorado’s Steadman Hawkins Clinic still very much in its’ inaugural stages.

“He couldn’t even save the weight of a tennis ball but here we are six weeks later and he’s making close range saves from full force shots and he’s not pulled his hand away from anything,” said Reading manager Steve Coppell who has no doubts that his goalkeeper, despite the two metal plates and 16 pins necessary to knit the two broken bones, is more than sufficiently recovered to face a United attack determined to begin their title defence with the sort of emphatic victory every season ticket holder will demand.

Naturally Hahnemann is in full agreement. “From the 23rd minute on May 13 and that low cross coming in to the box to now has been long, long ride to get back,” said the 35 year-old from Seattle who benefited from having a friend who worked at the Colorado clinic and instigated the surgery within a matter of days. “He telephoned me and said just get me the X-rays because I’m seeing the hand surgeon tomorrow. I flew over the next day and I’m sure the speed at which everything was done has resulted in me being fit to face Manchester Untied.”

Coppell is insistent nothing has happened in training in the past week to suggest Hahnemann is not ready. Strikers have been bombarding him with the most forceful shots they can muster and to a man they insist the goalkeeper has not pulled his hand away from anything. “It’s bound to be in his mind until he plays a few matches but he’s done incredibly well,” said Coppell.

However that comes as no real surprise to the Reading manager. “He’s been consistent since I’ve been here and in that time you can count the number of mistakes he’s made on the fingers of one hand,” continued Coppell. “And all of those are more than compensated by match winning performances. He is a presence in the team without being overly dominant. He’s a force and it’s a good feeling having him there.”

Americans of course view statistics as an integral part of sport’s allure and therefore it’s fitting Hahnemann, a member of Bruce Arena’s USA national squad and a former player for Colorado Rapids in the MLS, should have finished last season top of the Premiership table that charted the number of actual saves made by each goalkeeper.

Such efforts were integral to Reading’s exemplary showing in a season they began as a popular choice in the list of prime candidates for relegation back from where they came. However a year ago they kicked off with a home game against Middlesbrough. This time the Mancunian environment will be far more imposing and things may get only fractionally more conducive as Chelsea head to the Madejski Stadium on Wednesday.

Confront Hahnemann with the suggestion that Reading did better than even the club’s players were hoping last season and there comes an elongated silence of contemplation before he furtively replies : “Maybe.”

Then ask him whether this time his side have been given the toughest start possible and he simply smiles before insisting: “These are not make or break games for us but they are for Manchester United and Chelsea. It’s kind of idiotic to say it but they have to go out and win because people are already talking about the title being decided in the first few days of the season. For us there’s no such pressure and we can go out and enjoy the experience.”

After spending a year training with United’s FA Community Shield match winner Edwin Van der Sar during their time together at Fulham a few years ago, Hahnemann has a friend in the opposition ranks and they have spoken several times about the Old Trafford experience. “When we went there in the league last season I did not take it in at all,” he recalled. “I was so focused on the game and it was almost like it was all black up in the stands. Then we went back there in the FA Cup and I was on the bench because Adam Federici was playing.

“Sitting there I had the opportunity to look at it all. I could watch and listen to the crowd and it was all so different. A couple weeks later we went to Arsenal. There was a gap in the play so took a good look around and took a few mental snapshots. That was sweet for a moment or two and then I got back into the game.”