Two more Sheffield United men fall victim to injury curse as Chris Wilder looks to "resolve" situation

Sheffield United's injury curse has claimed two more victims, with Max Lowe and youngster Sydie Peck joining the list of walking wounded at Bramall Lane this season. Youngster Peck has gone under the knife for the second time in the space of six months to correct issues in both knees, while Lowe suffered an injury in training before Saturday's game at Manchester City.

United have suffered terribly with absences this season, with vast swathes of their first-team squad being unavailable through a variety of contact and training-ground injuries. Tom Davies is on the comeback trail but John Egan and Chris Basham remain out for the long-term, with Lowe also expected to be out for "a number of weeks".

"He missed the Man City game and pulled up in training. Disappointing for him, he's had a series of injuries that have not helped him," said Wilder. "He was a part of the group and did well coming off the bench a couple of times so to lose a player like that is disappointing. He's had a few issues over a period of months which has not been great for him.

"People have to recognise that players don't want to be injured but unfortunately he's part of that big group that's there at the moment. Sydie went in for a tackle and had to have a knee operation so those are things you can't get away from, being a competitive aspect of football. But looking back at the soft tissue injuries it's something, whether into recruitment or conditioning, we need to look at more closely."

United's injury record under Wilder during his first spell in charge was good, something the Blades chief is determined to replicate again as he puts his own stamp on preparations. "Different demands," he added. "Everyone has their own structure and own their conditioning ideas and we're no different.

"We've had a decent record over a number of years and we have to get back to that. There are the unlucky ones, of course, but there's been a situation here that we have to solve and resolve. To have 10 to 12 players unavailable ... some are really unfortunate, like the Bashams and the Egans, but there's some we have to look at a bit more closer to overcome and hopefully we'll be able to do that."