SEAN Dyche hailed Anders Lindegaard's desire to fight for a first-team place at Burnley after completing a deal to sign the goalkeeper until the end of the season.

The former Manchester United man has linked up with the Clarets following Tom Heaton's shoulder surgery, with Dyche keen to swell his goalkeeping ranks back to three.

Lindegaard, 33, was a free agent after being released by Preston in the summer and he trained with Burnley last week, and Dyche has been impressed with the Denmark international, who last made a Premier League appearance for United in April 2014.

"With Tom getting injured we started looking around to see if anyone was out there. We knew Anders had turned down a couple of things and he’s got a good history with what he’s done," the Clarets chief said.

"He’s coming out of a little quiet spell but he’s very motivated, I spoke to him as did Billy Mercer and he seems very motivated to really fight and get fit and sharp.

"It’s beginning to come back immediately, we’ve been impressed with that and he spoke of his hunger and desire to work hard and put pressure on the number one situation.

"Three goalkeepers is the norm really, you would have three and often the young lads come up with us as well because we want to continue their development working with what I think is a really good goalkeeping group.

"At any level you want real competition, often they’ll be a younger keeper which is good for their development. Billy often gets two or three of the younger keepers to work with the group, but generally speaking you want three competitive keepers."

Heaton underwent surgery on a dislocated shoulder last week and Dyche said it was too early to put a timeframe on his return, but the surgeon was pleased with how the operation went.

"It’s too early yet, but they’re really pleased with how the operation went, it’s pretty straightforward with regards to what the surgeon is used to seeing. Tom is fine, but it’s a settling down period for now."