Sheffield United: New training pitches will be 'game changers' in the fight for promotion

The United manager could be without a dozen first team players during tomorrow’s game against Stoke City, with the likes of George Baldock and Sander Berge all expected to miss-out through injury while Oli McBurnie is suspended.

Speaking midway through last term, when fitness and conditioning started to become issues, Heckingbottom and a number of senior squad members traced a direct link between those and the state of the surfaces at the Randox Health Academy; complaining they had become unworkable following a period of inclement weather.

Those concerns prompted United’s hierarchy to green light plans, which had also been supported by Heckingbottom’s predecessors Chris Wilder and Slavisa Jokanovic, to upgrade the site and ensure the 44-year-old’s side could work on a pitch which mirrored the one at their home stadium.

“It will be a game changer for us, in terms of having somewhere for us to work on and also somewhere to get the lads who are in rehab back,” Heckingbottom told journalists yesterday. “I don’t know what the percentage is exactly but I’ve been told we can get it effectively the same as the one at the ground, which will make a huge difference to lots of different things.”

United are still working on the old grass surface previously used by their academy counterparts, with members of Derek Geary’s development programme temporarily basing themselves at Warminster Road and on the 4g surface at the club’s training complex.

“It’s been so hard for them, playing (matches) at York as well, so it will be good for them to come back,” Heckingbottom continued. “We like to have that connectivity, being able to go over and watch them at a moment’s notice, and we’ll be able to get that back as well. Hopefully we’ll be able to sort it soon, for their environment and how they train as well.”

As well as replicating the DESSO technology in use at Bramall Lane, the new pitches also boast a state-of-the-art drainage system. One is scheduled to be a full sized surface, with the other, according to Heckingbottom, “about three quarter sized.” The two can be combined to create one which would adhere to UEFA standards.

“We’ve been inventive, with what’s gone underneath, because of the costs and budget,” Heckingbottom explained. “The really good thing is that we’re going to have four penalty boxes available to us, and that will really help with the flow of the work and training we do here.”

“It should be stitched, the artificial aspect, by the end of October,” he added. “Whether or not we go straight on it, I don’t know. We’ll just have to see.

“But it looks good, really good. You can already see the difference, with the weather changing a bit, between what we’ll be going onto and what was here before.”

MORE: https://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/football/sheffield-united/sheffield-united-championship-leaders-boss-calls-for-refereeing-clamp-down-on-controversial-tactic-3867519