McBurnie, Egan, Stevens... Sheffield United boss issues injury update as trio return to training ahead of Derby clash

Sheffield United have welcomed back some of the 11 players who were unavailable for last weekend’s trip to Wolves as they prepare to resume Championship action at Derby County on Saturday.

The Pride Park trip will be only United’s second league game since early December, and the Blades will hope to rediscover the momentum they lost after a spate of postponed games.

A number of players missed the Wolves clash with injury or Covid-19 issues, but Oli McBurnie, John Egan, Enda Stevens and Jack Robinson – who came off at half-time against Wolves with a back issue – were all on the grass today as United stepped up preparations for the Derby clash.

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Boss Paul Heckingbottom, who will miss that game after testing positive for Covid-19, revealed earlier today that McBurnie struggled for fitness after also contracting the virus.

“We’ve got a couple more back in who were missing,” the United manager said.

“John is back and Enda is back with the squad today. Oli McBurnie hopefully got through training today. He suffered when he had Covid and lost a lot of weight and struggled fitness wise, and then picked up another illness. Hopefully we can build him up now.”

Heckingbottom also updated supporters on the injury progress of John Fleck, George Baldock, and Robin Olsen, the goalkeeper who has been linked with a move to Aston Villa.

Morgan Gibbs-White, the Wolves loanee, has been rehabilitating with his parent club after picking up a knee injury while Ben Davies has returned to training after missing two games through personal reasons.

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“Robbo was back in training today,” Heckingbottom said.

“Flecky and Baldock will be another week if it goes well, we’ll see how it goes. Robin similar. Hopefully by the end of next week we might have a few more.

“Morgan might be a few weeks; he’s been out on the grass at Wolves. Ben has trained with the group as part of the session, the plan for him was to do most of the session so that’s good for him.

“It’s a step up after him doing fitness work on his own.”

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