Sheffield United boss fears rival clubs are taking advantage of Covid-19 rules to "tactically" postpone games

United saw their fourth Championship game in less than three weeks called off yesterday when Middlesbrough informed the English Football League that they would not be able to field a team against United on New Year’s Day after an outbreak of coronavirus in their ranks.

The EFL initially refused to postpone the game, leaving Boro boss Chris Wilder fuming ahead of his return to his former club.

Former United coaches Alan Knill and Matt Prestridge have tested positive, along with as many as nine first-team players.

And while Boro’s outbreak is geniune – Wilder describing the situation as the most difficult 48 hours of his managerial career – Heckingbottom fears other clubs may be taking advantage of the situation that has wreaked havoc with the English football schedule.

“With how things have panned out and how delicate it is at the minute with Covid, because the health and safety of people is paramount, it's sort of created a grey area where clubs can maybe take advantage and tactically call games off,” the Blades boss said before the Boro game was officially postponed.

“That's how it feels. And that's something I know people have been flagging at the EFL, either privately or openly.

“It's a difficult one but it's something they need to get hold of. We're trying to rearrange games and getting told: ‘We can’t play that date, we haven't got enough players’. Yet they're playing games now, so how do they know they won’t have the players in a few weeks’ time?

“That's the state we're getting to, which is laughable. Stuff like that is a joke and to stop it becoming a mockery, we need to get hold of it and make sure people and clubs are genuine when they're dealing with things.

“We all accept that Covid is rife and have to do all we can to stop it spreading. We get that. But we can't present opportunities to use that as an excuse.”

Wilder also admitted in his own pre-match press conference that he “100 per cent” believes that “some clubs have bent the rules to dodge a fixture” in regards to Covid-19.

“People have been cutting corners. We're not. This is genuine,” he added.

"I'm a man of integrity and honesty. We have been absolutely decimated.”

United have had a number of Covid-19 issues of their own, with strikers Oli McBurnie and David McGoldrick recently returning to training after periods of self-isolation. Midfielder Regan Slater also tested positive for the virus.

Asked if he expects United to be disadvantaged in the new year, with at least four extra games to be fitted into the fixture calendar, Heckingbottom added: “Only time will tell. It's not ideal, I will say, and we seem to have suffered a lot at the hands of others, which isn't great.

“Hopefully we never experience a big outbreak but we've constantly been without players and we’re dealing with it.

“The training schedule would have been different if we knew that games wouldn’t be played, but they’ve been postponed late.

“We're getting our heads around having two games a week for the majority of the season and we've got to deal with it.”

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