Sheffield United man a major doubt for Fleetwood Town clash after "unbelievable" situation as Chris Wilder answers squad question
Chris Wilder says Sam McCallum is a major doubt for Wednesday’s trip to Fleetwood Town, while also questioning the fixture schedule after Sheffield United’s demanding afternoon against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Sam McCallum is a major doubt for Sheffield United’s trip to Fleetwood Town tomorrow night after the left-back suffered what his boss Chris Wilder described as an “unbelievable whack” against Wolverhampton Wanderers. McCallum was forced off late on in Sunday’s 1-0 defeat.
McCallum required lengthy treatment at half-time to be able to continue as long as he did, after being poleaxed by a Wolves man as he jumped for a high ball and incredibly being penalised by ref Rob Jones.
He made way just before the end before Raul Jiminez’s 90th-minute winner which condemned United to a defeat that felt undeserved on the strength of their performance against a side Wilder expects to top 90 points this season.
Their attentions now turn to League Cup action at Highbury tomorrow, with a third successive away trip in the competition against a Fleetwood team preparing for their third at home.
“He got an unbelievable whack,” Wilder said. “He had a lengthy treatment at half-time and he’s a major doubt for Wednesday. The schedule is ridiculous. I think a couple of managers have pointed it out.
“We want to progress.We all want to progress in the cup. I suppose that's the price we have to pay. If we manage to get through a really difficult tie on Wednesday night, we'll have the same situation.
“But the amount of games we're playing straight off just opens it up. No wonder clubs are picking up injuries. We're not the only ones. A lot of clubs are picking up injuries and putting the players at risk of that.
“All the supporters pay good money to watch a team trying to get into a flow, trying to show some consistency. At the moment, we're chopping and changing. And we'll most probably have to do that on Wednesday night.”
Romelle Donovan, who was due to come on against Wolves before United were forced to instead use the sub to replace McCallum, started on the bench because of the amount of football he has played so far this season, while ordinarily Ben Brereton Diaz would have been eased in as well.
But the absences of Tahith Chong and Ryan One, who Wilder believes will “definitely” be back after the international break, have limited his options to swap it around, although he seemed to suggest that United will continue with a back three at Fleetwood.
But Wilder confirmed there won’t be a mass of young players given chances to impress. “No, no, it's not going to be that,” he added. “We've got a strong squad, but I liked the Blackburn away performance [in the last round] because we made some changes and the players fitted in seamlessly.
“I think one of the advantages that we've had with a lot of the players who played in that game is that they've been through the process of pre-season. They've been through all the detail, the training sessions, so the likes of Matt Doherty and Tyrese [Campbell] and Tom [Cannon], Jairo [Riedewald], Joe [Rothwell] and other players.
“They've been involved in everything we've done so far this season. I was delighted with the attitude when we made that amount of changes and I thought the performance was spot on. We deservedly got ourselves into the next round with a really professional and smooth performance.”