Sheffield United: Wolverhampton Wanderers receive a gentle reminder about why Morgan Gibbs-White is best left at Bramall Lane

Gibbs-White is scheduled to spend the rest of the season at Bramall Lane after arriving on loan in August.

The agreement contains a break clause which can be triggered by his parent club in January and although the general consensus is that Wolves do not plan to exercise it, United have yet to receive official confirmation about their stance on the 21-year-old.

Speaking ahead of his team’s game against Queens Park Rangers on Monday, which is expected to see Gibbs-White make his 15th appearance in a United shirt, manager Paul Heckingbottom acknowledged that strategies “can change” at a moment’s notice; particularly in the event of an injury crisis.

Given the England under-21 international’s performances since moving to South Yorkshire, there is a feeling Heckingbottom’s counterpart Bruno Lage and Scott Sellars, who is monitoring the player’s progress on behalf of the Portuguese, are minded to let him fulfil his obligations to United.

But if the mood music changes, Heckingbottom and his coaching staff are expected to explain the steps they will take to help Gibbs-White continue enhancing his skill set in order to try and prompt a rethink.

“Morgan loves football and that’s a massive compliment in my eyes,” Heckingbottom told journalists earlier this week. “Wolves haven’t given any indication yet, no.

“We’d love to keep him. We can provide him with the experiences and the coaching. We believe we are a good place for him. We haven’t been working with him long but there’s areas where we want to push him along. But you can see he loves the game.”

Despite being portrayed as praise for Gibbs-White, who has registered five goals and four assists after being signed by his predecessor Slavisa Jokanovic, Heckingbottom’s comments were also designed to provide Wolves with a subtle reminder that the youngster’s interests would be best served by remaining with United.

Paul Mitchell, their long-serving head of recruitment, is known to be good friends with Sellars and their relationship helped swing the race for Gibbs-White’s services in United’s favour when it first became apparent he might leave the Midlands.

On target during last weekend’s win over Cardiff City, Gibbs-White has become one of United’s most influential players over the past four months and is crucial to Heckingbottom’s hopes of securing top six qualification after he replaced Jokanovic last month.

Unbeaten in four and having taken maximum points from both of their outings under the former Barnsley, Leeds and Hibernian chief, the meeting with QPR is seen as being particularly significant given that the visitors are fifth in the table; five places above United.

Although Gibbs-White and John Fleck are both available for selection, with the Scot receiving the all-clear from medical staff after suffering seizure on the pitch at Reading during Jokanovic’s final match in charge, goalkeeper Robin Olsen (rib) and striker Rhian Brewster will sit out the contest.

United had hoped Brewster’s hamstring injury would heal in time for him to take part. But their diagnosis has since been revised, with Heckingbottom confessing he will spend “some time” on the treatment table.