Revealed: The moment Sheffield United's manager was told the club was under a transfer embargo

It emerged on Thursday night that the English Football League have prohibited officials at Bramall Lane from registering new players after failing to meet their financial obligations relating to a previous recruitment deal.

The Star asked Heckingbottom following Friday’s win over Hull City when the news was first relayed to him by United’s hierarchy and he replied: “When did we first realise? It was the middle of the week. That’s when we knew.”

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Despite masterminding United’s rise to second in the Championship table - they enter Sunday’s FA Cup tie against Wrexham having won eight and drawn one of their last nine outings in all competitions - Heckingbottom and his coaching staff have been forced to contend with a number of issues behind the scenes since the 45-year-old’s appointment 14 months ago. The overwhelming majority of those are thought to relate to money and issues which have arisen from its shortage behind the scenes. Fourteen members of Heckingbottom’s first team squad, including eight who featured against Hull, are scheduled to leave South Yorkshire at the end of the present campaign when their loans or contracts expire. Officials at United continue to insist this is not cause for concern, because they possess options on some of those. Daniel Jebbison, whose goal put Liam Rosenior’s men to the sword, is among those entering the closing stages of his present agreement.

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A statement, issued by United in response to the EFL’s actions, explained the board of directors “remain in constant dialogue with relevant stakeholders” aimed at “rectifying the situation “this week”. There has been an attempt to blame the matter on takeover talks involving owner Prince Abdullah bin Musa’ad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and an investor which could see the Saudi Arabian relinquish control. But, as the EFL actions served to remind, these do not excuse United from fulfilling their responsibilities to rival teams either at home or abroad. Under the terms of the EFL’s own regulations, it is likely they placed United on 48 hours notice to address the situation before publishing details of their breach.

The ban on processing new registrations will remain in place until the matter is resolved, which appears to have all but ended Heckingbottom’s hopes of drafting in a replacement for Reda Khadra. The Germany under-21 international, who later completed a temporary switch to Birmingham City, returned to his parent club Brighton and Hove Albion earlier this month when his loan arrangement with United was terminated by mutual consent.

Despite confirming he had been granted permission to re-enter the market by United chiefs, Heckingbottom admitted that was on the proviso the associated costs were the same as the very favourable ones negotiated with Albion over Khadra.

Despite reports to the contrary, published when the EFL’s ruling was made public, Heckingbottom told journalists following the meeting with Hull that he “can’t” bolster the options at his disposal until United either settle or re-arrange their debt.

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