The emergency plan Sheffield United have drawn-up to help them cope if this season is disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic

The Star understands that Chris Wilder and senior members of his staff considered a variety of different scenarios, including another suspension to the competition’s programme and selection problems which might arise in the event of positive tests, at a meeting on the eve of the present campaign.

United did not play a game for over three months when the country was placed into lockdown earlier this year, with their results when action resumed in June markedly inferior to those they recorded before the government intervened.

Wilder is thought to have chaired the session, which also included his assistant Alan Knill, coaches Matt Prestridge and Darren Ward and head of recruitment Paul Mitchell, which saw them investigate the reasons why United won only three of their 11 outings following ‘Project Restart’ as opposed to 14 of the 33 they contested before.

The opinion of United’s conditioning and physiotherapy departments was also canvassed, with United’s preciously excellent injury record also deteriorating over the past 15 weeks. The findings will be used to design a new series of training and fitness sessions should elite level sport be shutdown again.

United’s representatives took part in Tuesday’s PL summit, which saw clubs vote on how to proceed if they are unable to fulfil the 2020/21 domestic calendar because of the coronavirus - which forced a number of those under Wilder’s command to miss huge swathes of pre-season because they were self-isolating.

Speaking earlier this year, as fears rose that football could be mothballed until winter, Wilder argued that “finishing the campaign” had to take precedence over “starting the new one” rather than using average points per game or other statistical measures to judge who finished where.

However, with the UEFA European Championships now taking place this summer, PL sides feel compelled to adopt a different approach this time around because the tournament will not be moved again.

United travel to Arsenal on Sunday having lost their last three outings.

An important message: Thank you for reading this article, one of dozens we publish every single day to provide you with the best, most up-to-date and most informative coverage of YOUR club. This depth of coverage costs, so to help us maintain the high-quality reporting that you are used to from the football team at The Star, please consider taking out a subscription to our new discounted sports-only package. You'll find all the details at https://www.thestar.co.uk/subscriptions/sports.

Your support is much appreciated.

Chris Holt, Football Editor