Sheffield United skipper Billy Sharp shares injury update ahead of new Championship season

Sharp’s 2021/22 season was curtailed by damage to his calf - sustained in training shortly after he made his return from a hamstring issue - and the boyhood Blade was forced to watch from the sidelines as United suffered yet more play-off heartache after losing in the semi-finals to eventual winners Nottingham Forest.

Sharp insists he’d have declared himself fit to play if United reached Wembley, no matter his condition, and that, at 36 years of age, he is modifying his lifestyle to prolong his playing career for as long as possible.

“It's been slower than I'd have liked,” Sharp told The Star of his injury rehabilitation process.

“If we'd have got to the play-off final, I'd have played no matter how it felt but I had a little setback.

“I'm getting older so I need to be clever with what I do and don't do. I'll be fit for the start of the season and trying to score as many goals as I can, like I normally do.”

With only two warm-up games remaining before Paul Heckingbottom’s men travel to Watford on August 1, Sharp added: “It's been a tricky injury.

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“I came back from my hamstring which was pretty quick and I was training well. I felt great.

“Then out of the blue, doing a little bit of extra work to get up to speed and felt a pop in my calf.

“I've never had any problems there so it was very disappointing but the lads were superb to get to the play-offs and I thought we were going on to win it. Unluckily we didn't quite make it through but we'll be back stronger next year.

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“I was so proud of the boys on the night, how they got back into it because a lot of people had written us off.

“But they were brilliant. Fair play to Forest, they got through and got promoted. I think everyone fancied whoever won that semi to go up.

“So to get beaten by the people who got promoted, there's no shame in that.”

Billy Sharp was speaking at the 2022 LJS Cup, held each year at his former club Middlewood Rovers in memory of his late son Luey. For more information about the competition, visit www.mrjfc.net/ljs-cup.