Ismaila Coulibaly placed on Sheffield United standby ahead of Wembley semi

Ismaila Coulibaly has been placed on potential standby for next weekend’s FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City at Wembley after manager Paul Heckingbottom reported the Malian midfielder is “fit and available”.

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Coulibaly has appeared in four of United’s five FA Cup games to date and with the Blades unable to call upon the services of James McAtee and Tommy Doyle in the final-four clash against the pair’s parent club, could earn a recall to the 20-man squad for Wembley.

Ollie Norwood and John Fleck are also in line to start against Pep Guardiola’s superstars, with United facing Bristol City in a crunch Championship clash on Tuesday evening before full focus turns to their date in the capital.

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And speaking ahead of that game, when asked Coulibaly could feature in either game this week, Heckingbottom admitted: Potentially, yeah. He’s fit; the only thing is he’s missing out on games.

“He’s been in the squad and not played a few times but for him to keep developing and pushing, we need to get him game time. To show us what he can do and also improve him. He’s fit and available and working hard to get in the team.”

Aged 22, Coulibaly returned to Bramall Lane from his loan spell at United’s sister club Beerschot in the summer but has been largely limited to run-outs in the FA Cup, with his only league appearance coming as an 89th-minute substitute in a 3-0 victory over Swansea at Bramall Lane.

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Coulibaly did start in United’s impressive display against Premier League giants Tottenham Hotspur in the fifth round as United won 1-0 at Bramall Lane, but has not been seen since and did not make the squad against Cardiff - with teenager Oli Arblaster instead coming into the 18 after Chris Basham and Anel Ahmedhodzic were both ruled out just before the clash.

“They’d all trained that morning so because it was such a late call, Blaster wasn’t getting on. No-one was getting on,” Heckingbottom said. “They’d just been running all morning.

“But it was an opportunity to get someone up and involved. And there’s no-one with a better attitude than Blaster, so he deserved it.”

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