UK heatwave sees kick off time altered for Sheffield United’s friendly at Mansfield Town

United travel to Mansfield Town, managed by their former boss Nigel Clough, on Tuesday evening. The match, played behind closed doors in the advice of Nottinghamshire Police, was originally scheduled to kick off at 7pm.

But with temperatures in Mansfield scheduled to hit 33 degrees Celsius at that time, the decision has been taken to push kick-off back by an hour – when the mercury will be hitting a more reasonable 31 degrees.

A statement issued to explain the change said it had been made “in an attempt to give soaring temperatures in the UK at the moment chance to cool to assist both sets of players.”

It won’t be United’s first experience of playing through substantial heat, with temperatures in Portugal hitting close to 40 degrees before their first friendly against Casa Pia.