Sheffield United hope to have new striker before Aston Villa game after Lys Mousset suffers "rare" injury

Mousset was forced to go under the knife to correct what Wilder called a “rare injury” to a ligament under his toe, which he damaged in United’s final pre-season game against Preston North End.

The Frenchman instead watched from home as his teammates were beaten 2-0 by Wolves, conceding twice in the opening six minutes to kick-off their new Premier League season with a 2-0 reverse.

And his absence will intensify United’s need for a new striker, with Liverpool’s Rhian Brewster Wilder’s main target.

"We are definitely looking to improve and get one at the top of the pitch to give us that quality," said Wilder, whose side face Burnley in the Carabao Cup on Thursday before travelling to Villa Park on Monday evening.

"We are trying. It is an important area of the pitch. Obviously we have the skipper [Billy Sharp] and David McGoldrick who were involved on Monday.

"Didzy was injured on international duty and only trained for half an hour on Sunday to get on the bench. Oli Burke has not played any minutes of football at all, so he will start his season on Thursday night.

"Oli McBurnie was out on his feet as well and Lys is injured. He has a foot ligament injury and has had a minor operation, which is disappointing because he’s an asset for us.

"It’s quite a rare injury, a ligament under his toe.

"He’s in a boot at the moment but hopefully he comes out of that and gets himself back up and running.”

As The Star revealed recently, United are in advanced talks with their counterparts at Liverpool over signing Brewster. Officials at Bramall Lane presented Jurgen Klopp with a detailed development programme for the England under-21 centre-forward – who impressed on loan at Swansea City last season, in the Championship - which they believe can help them fend off competition from Villa for his services.