Sheffield United: This is when injury progress will really be revealed

Speaking as his team entered the World Cup break, Paul Heckingbottom acknowledged coaching staff and conditioners at Bramall Lane would be using the pause in the Championship fixture schedule to treat some of the injuries United have collected during the opening 21 matches of the campaign. With Sander Berge and Max Lowe thought to be leading the race to become the senior player to declare themselves available following long-term absences, while Jayden Bogle positions himself neatly in their slipstream, the United manager hopes to be facing an unusual but welcome problem ahead of the meeting with Mark Fotheringham’s side: How to tell one of the club’s leading names that, despite being able to participate, they just watch the fixture from either the stands or the bench.

“It’s something we’ve had to do much, if at all, of late,” Heckingbottom admitted, after surveying United’s casualty list following last month’s win over Cardiff City. “But hopefully it will be soon. We want to be in a position where we can react to situations, opponents and the like, instead of just who we’ve got.”

Given the stress his squad has been under of late, the sight of Heckingbottom’s men sitting second in the Championship table is an achievement in itself. Only three points behind leaders Burnley, there is a growing confidence behind the scenes that United can overhaul the gap between themselves and their rivals from Lancashire once some of their most influential performers return.

But being able to call upon the likes of Berge, Lowe and Bogle - plus more of the dozen professionals who missed the trip to the Welsh capital, including Tommy Doyle and Anel Ahmedhodzic, will bring physical as well as strategic benefits too. United’s investigation into why they have been so prone to injury and illness - Ahmedhodzic was diagnosed with a viral infection ahead of the fixture in Cardiff - has revealed that many of the complaints sustained of late would have been avoided had people carrying knocks not been required to start contests.

“Sometimes, we’ve not been able to protect people,” admitted Heckingbottom. “They’ve had to go out there and do a job, which to their total credit they have done, when in ordinary circumstances that wouldn’t have been the case.”

Heckingbottom is scheduled to address the media at United’s training complex on Thursday, with many of the questions he will field from journalists expected to revolve around the status of Berge, Lowe and Bogle. But the 45-year-old is notoriously evasive, sometimes even duplicitous, when it comes to discussing team affairs. So the best answer will come when his picks for the clash with Town are published an hour before kick-off. Heckingbottom stated, following United’s recent visit to West Bromwich Albion, that he tasks one of his assistants with trawling through opponents social media accounts in order to glean clues about their plans ahead of matches. Given that he was happy to elaborate on this tactic, having earlier volunteered the information, United almost certainly gather information via other channels too.