How Sheffield United will utilise rare boost ahead of crunch Nottingham Forest and Middlesbrough games

The Blades have played three games a week routinely of late as they make up their games in hand which were postponed over December and January because of Covid-19 cases in the QPR, Hull, Preston and Middlesbrough camps.

It is testament to Paul Heckingbottom and his squad that they have coped well overall, despite seeing a spate of season-ending injuries threaten to spoil the good momentum they have built since the former Barnsley and Leeds United chief was appointed back in November.

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Privately, coaching staff at United’s Shirecliffe base believe the stop-start nature of the schedule around Christmas – when games were often postponed at the 11th hour – resulted in injuries to at least two of their players, and possibly more.

United face Nottingham Forest on Friday evening, in front of the Sky Sports cameras, before returning to Bramall Lane to play Chris Wilder’s Middlesbrough.

“We’ll use the three days to try and refresh and get ready for the hard work of the next two games,” Heckingbottom, whose side trained on Monday, said after Saturday’s defeat at Millwall.

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“We know it’ll be non-stop, it’ll be non-stop until the Barnsley game, but we’ve been doing well.

“We’ll keep working hard, there were some good reminders from [Millwall] that we’ll have to learn. We’ll use what we can from it.

“We’ll focus on us. We’ll prepare for the other team, but it’s about us and we’ll focus on that before the Forest game.”

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