Heatwave: Sheffield United reveal how weather may affect Mansfield Town game tonight

Both sides agreed to push back the game, which will be played behind closed doors, by an hour from the original seven o’clock kick-off time, to allow temperatures to cool a little more as the UK grapples with a two-day heatwave.

The mercury is forecasted to hit 39 degrees Celsius in Mansfield at 3pm – with United subjected to similar conditions on their pre-season tour of Portugal ahead of their first friendly game against Casa Pia.

Most of United’s starting XI played around 75 minutes at Scunthorpe on Saturday, in a 3-2 defeat, with the original plan to give United’s substitutes at Glanford Park a similar amount of game-time before Paul Heckingbottom’s men round off their pre-season schedule with trips to Burton Albion and Barnsley.

“We'll be looking at the weather warning and weather conditions and things, but we've just played in higher temperatures in Portugal,” Heckingbottom said.

“It was ridiculous out there. While we have to take precautions and do things right, you never know what the weather is going to be like at the start of the season anyway.”

He added: “As long as we prepare properly and recover properly afterwards, it'll be another good workout.

How each of United's players rated in Scunthorpe friendly defeat

“I've spoken with [Mansfield boss] Nigel Clough about the game, and we can't really change [the date] because we've got other fixtures.

“But we could maybe look at the water breaks, the substitutions and things like that with the referee. To make sure we just do the right things and get the most we can out of the game.”

Sander Berge, George Baldock and new boy Ciaran Clark, who signed on loan from Newcastle United last week and played the last 15 minutes or so at Glanford Park to make his Blades debut, are amongst the first-team players who were set to receive a longer run-out against former United boss Nigel Clough’s League Two side, who lost in their play-off final last season.

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