The Black Cats starlet bounced right back to his best with a match-winning display against West Ham United on Sunday,
The 20-year-old has endured a difficult few weeks by his standards after winning his first senior England cap last month, the reward for a remarkable 18 months in his fledgling career.
Indeed, manager Steve Bruce hinted in the run-up to Sunday's match that the time might be right to give the academy graduate a rest after an almost non-stop run in the first-team since his emergence from the ranks. However, that simply served to increase Henderson's resolve to double his efforts on the training pitch to catch the manager's eye, and both men received their rewards when the midfielder chose the perfect moment to score his first goal of the season and clinch a 1-0 victory.
Having avoided the chop, the youngster is now intent upon ensuring that Bruce no longer feels the need to give him a breather.

Henderson said: "There had been a little bit of talk that I might not have been playing and it made me a little bit disappointed, so I made sure in training it was clear I wanted to play and I wanted to go out and make sure I did things right.
"I have been disappointed in the last couple of weeks. I don't think I have played particularly well, so this week in training, I really knuckled down and went back to basics.
"I just want to kick on from here and keep going."
Henderson's 34th-minute strike ended a long wait for a goal - his last came in a 4-3 defeat at Manchester City on 19th December 2009 - and also answered a regular plea from his manager.
It was not until the club's 13th Barclays Premier League fixture of the season at Chelsea last month than anyone other than Darren Bent or Asamoah Gyan in a Sunderland shirt scored, with Nedum Onuoha and Danny Welbeck both registering in a shock 3-0 win.
Henderson added his name to the list with a deft left-foot finish from Gyan's pinpoint cross, guiding the ball wide of keeper Robert Green.
He said: "It was great play by Asamoah. He spotted me and I managed to take this one.
"I have scored one this season and hopefully there are a lot more to come."