Iliman Ndiaye shows his commitment to Sheffield United after World Cup exploits
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With Senegal suffering defeat to England in the round of 16 on Sunday evening in Qatar, Ndiaye and his teammates returned to their respective club countries the following day and inevitable concerns were raised about both his mental and physical fatigue levels as a result.
But, in the clearest hint yet that Ndiaye will be named on the teamsheet to face Mark Fotheringham’s struggling Town on Saturday afternoon, boss Paul Heckingbottom revealed that the 22-year-old asked to report to United’s Shirecliffe training base on Tuesday, before being told to take a few days of rest before linking up with his teammates again on Thursday morning.
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Hide Ad“He’s good,” Heckingbottom said. “He’s focused on us now. We know how big it is for him. His first cap was huge but then to go and to feature in a World Cup, how many people have had the chance to do that? To go and play for your country in a World Cup is unreal, so it's probably not sunk in yet. But I’m sure it will.
“He'll be humble about it. I think Iliman looks forward rather than back. He still wants to improve and play at as high a level as he can. He knows he has to work hard to do that. He asked to come in on Tuesday; I think they were flying on the Monday but we said: ‘No, just come in Thursday’. He was trying to get back to us.”
Asked if the players had taken the opportunity to rib Ndiaye about his World Cup exploits, Heckingbottom smiled: “No, just me I think! From my point of view it couldn’t have been better [on Sunday]. England were 2-0 up and Iliman was off at half-time, fit and well and ready for us.”
Ndiaye has nine goals to his name this season for the Blades, helping them into the automatic promotion places of the Championship before flying to Qatar to take his place amongst Aliou Cisse’s squad. He played three times in Qatar, starting his country’s last two games before being knocked out.
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