Sheffield United: Boss says he has the evidence to bust a myth about injuries
Paul Heckingbottom, the Sheffield United manager, claims he has evidence to prove the shocking catalogue of injuries his squad has suffered this season should be attributed to bad luck rather than the manner in which it prepares for games.
United are set to be without 10 senior players for tomorrow’s game against Norwich City, with all but one of those - the suspended Wes Foderingham - confined to the treatment room. Although Heckingbottom’s team selections were disrupted by injury last term - something he blamed on the number of postponements it suffered because of a spike in Covid-19 cases - he accepted the situation at Bramall Lane is now the worst he has experienced in a career which spans nearly three decades and 14 different clubs.
Inevitably, that has seen United’s work at the Randox Health Academy come under the microscope, with Rhys Norrington-Davies the latest defender shoe-horned into an over-crowded treatment room already inhabited by Jayden Bogle, Enda Stevens, Max Lowe and Ciaran Clark.
After watching Norrington-Davies leave the pitch on a stretcher during Wednesday’s defeat by Coventry City, Heckingbottom revealed the investigation he launched earlier this term is still on-going.
But after analysing not only the number but also the nature of the problems which are complicating his plans for the meeting with Dean Smith’s side, the 44-year-old, who is also without midfielders Sander Berge and Ismaila Coulibaly, said: “You have to look realistically and there's been no change in the soft tissues. It has been bad luck in the terms of injuries we have suffered with collisions and knee injuries - three disconnecting: Jack (Robinson). Jayden, Ismaila. Then Billy (Sharp) is standing on someone's foot and doing his ankle, Ozzy (Ben Osborn) getting stood on doing his ankle, Sander getting tugged back doing his ankle. If they had been two or three weeks a pop, fine. But they have not, they have been big, big injuries. It means that the other boys are playing all the time.”
Sharp, Robinson, Osborn and John Fleck have all returned to action in recent weeks, with the latter confirming his recovery from a broken leg by making a cameo appearance during the loss at the CBS Arena which left United fourth in the Championship. Like sixth-placed Norwich, who have lost all of their last three outings, they have struggled for form since the international break.
To Heckingbottom’s frustration, those helping him search for a solution to the problem which threatens to derail United’s push for promotion believe the workload being placed on players as they return from spells out heightens the risk of them breaking down again. Yet, with so many unavailable for selection, Heckingbottom feels he has little choice but to continue with the policy; even though he acknowledged some of them needed a rest after being called-up by their respective countries last month.
“I am frustrated, but we know why we cannot do as much as possible,” Heckingbottom said, confessing he feels compelled to lower the intensity of training which, in turn, has exacerbated the issue. “As we have not got those numbers, it's play, recover, prepare. We lost a lot in the international break and the majority of our starters played 90 mins. We could have done without it and we were left with four back.”
