Sheffield United's injury blow ahead of Sunderland clash as Paul Heckingbottom provides update

The Blades travel to Wearside on the back of a 1-0 defeat to Luton Town, a loss that allowed Middlesbrough to close the gap between themselves and United to just four points at close of play last weekend. The absence of Manchester City loanee Doyle on Saturday was questioned by Blades fans on social media - with the 21-year-old having not been seen in action since a sterling display against Spurs.

However, as Heckingbottom revealed, Doyle’s absence is because of the club wanting to manage his workload: “Tommy picked up two of those [injuries] when he had big physical outputs and then gone game after game after game. So he definitely wasn’t going to play straight away after the Spurs match, because we had to be mindful of that.”

Whilst Doyle hasn’t been ruled-out of Wednesday’s game, the Blades will definitely be without youngster Andre Brooks at the Stadium of Light, with Heckingbottom revealing the 21-year-old suffered a training ground injury after the Blades were forced to relocate their training due to adverse weather in south Yorkshire last week.

“Andre, he’s walking around in a (protective) boot at the moment.” Heckingbottom said. “It happened when he trained indoors the other day. We’ll see (how it is).”

Heckingbottom will be able to pick striker Oli McBurnie on Wednesday night, however, after he survived yet another game without picking up a two game suspension. McBurnie has picked up nine yellow cards this season and is just one booking away from a ban.