Sheffield United Transfers: How Covid-19 uncertainty and backlog could affect loan recall decisions

The Blades will have at least three extra games to squeeze in between the turn of the year and the end of the season, after their meetings with QPR, Preston North End and Hull City this month were postponed after a breakout of Covid-19 cases in their oppositions’ dressing rooms.

With the virus – and its more-transmissable Omicron variant – wreaking havoc with the English football schedule, those three may not be the last games the Blades will have to rearrange in the coming weeks and months.

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Paul Heckingbottom’s men will now travel to Preston on Tuesday January 18, with a 7.45pm kick-off, and although there is some potential easing of fixture congestion with the scrapping of FA Cup replays this season, it is likely to have been a factor when Heckingbottom and his staff assessed the immediate futures of their on-loan players.

Zak Brunt and Kacper Lopata are currently at Southend United, with their initial loan spells running out at the turn of the year. The pair face an uncertain future whilst Southend remain under a transfer embargo, the terms of which could scupper the Shrimpers’ hopes of extending the pair’s temporary stay at Roots Hall.

But if they do stay on the south coast, the terms of their youth loans mean they can be recalled quickly by the Blades in the case of any emergency, such as injuries or Covid-19.

United striker Daniel Jebbison is also out on loan, at Burton Albion in League One, while Max Lowe was catching the eye with his performances for Nottingham Forest before picking up an injury earlier this year.

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"I need to speak to the gaffer here and Sheff U and see what’s going on for me," Brunt said recently.

"My goal at the end of the day is to play for Sheffield United. We’ll talk about the next step and if that’s staying at Southend United, then I’d be more than happy to do so.

"But if it’s going somewhere else or going back to Sheff U, that will have to be the case. So we’ll see."

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