What Paul Heckingbottom's surprising message was to Sheffield United's players

With United not scheduled to return to Premier League action until early next month, when they face Leeds at Elland Road, Heckingbottom has told the majority of his senior squad to enjoy a rest before resuming training later this week.

Although he conceded it will shorten their preparation time for the trip to West Yorkshire, Heckingbottom has calculated the benefits of a break should outweigh the negatives.

“I want them to forget all about football,” he said. “I just want them to unwind and relax, that’s what I want them doing over the next couple of days. I don’t want them to be thinking about what’s gone on, why it’s gone on and how things might have been different.”

Despite telling some players to work on their fitness with their under-23’s - centre-forward Lys Mousset started Monday’s victory over Queens Park Rangers - and remaining at the Steelphalt Academy himself, Heckingbottom decided to grant most of them a break after studying their demeanours before last weekend’s FA Cup quarter-final defeat by Chelsea.

Disappointed by the result but encouraged by United’s second-half performance at Stamford Bridge, when Thomas Tuchel admitted his side was forced to “suffer”, Heckingbottom labelled it a “big” improvement on events at Leicester City seven days earlier. Then, less than 24 hours after Chris Wilder’s departure was officially confirmed, United were beaten 5-0 - with only some excellent saves from Aaron Ramsdale prevented the final scoreline from being even higher.

“To be honest, with the emotion of everything that had happened, I think it was always going to be impossible for the players to perform,” Heckingbottom conceded. “Genuinely, I just don’t think it was possible for them to come up with anything.”

With United heading for relegation - they are 14 points from safety at the bottom of the table with only nine matches remaining - Heckingbottom added: “We want to put everyone in the best possible place to try and do something.”

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