Manager Oliver Glasner confirmed that Henderson would return to the starting XI against Nottingham Forest on Saturday, after Johnstone suffered an elbow injury on international duty with England, set to rule him out for the rest of the season.
After a four-match absence, Henderson returned between the posts at the City Ground and made a string of important saves and punches in the eventual 1-1 draw, with Glasner describing his performance as “brilliant – absolutely brilliant.”
But the goalkeeper explained his first thoughts, upon hearing the news, were with his close friend and colleague Johnstone, with whom he goes a long way back.
Henderson said: “Obviously, firstly, I’m devastated for my mate Sam.
“For me, personally, it’s nice to be back out there. Obviously that’s where I want to be. I’ve had a really difficult year – everyone knows that – through injuries, getting going, not quite getting going… I just want to play football and enjoy it, with a smile on my face.
“Any point away in the Premier League is obviously a good point. I thought we maybe deserved more – maybe if that [last-minute corner] goes [off the] post and in on another day – but I thought the lads played really well in spells.
“We’ve just got to get that consistency throughout the game. We’re showing good signs of improvement.
“[We wanted] to get the next goal and put the game to bed, but obviously we couldn’t do that. We missed some chances, they hit us with the sucker punch, and I thought we played some really good stuff after that. It was a bit of basketball – it went either way at the end – but we did alright.”