Sheffield United could be without three key players for promotion run in.
This comes after an incident-packed draw with Millwall in the Championship. John Egan was sent off at Bramall Lane, while both Chris Basham and Billy Sharp came off with injuries.
Gary Madine had given the Blades the lead, but Egan was then shown a straight red card for a deliberate handball on the line. Ben Marshall missed the resultant penalty, but Jake Cooper grabbed a late point with a 95th minute equaliser.
With Leeds United beating Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 in the late kick off, Chris Wilder’s men are now three points behind the automatic promotion places with four games left to play.
Wilder revealed after the draw with Millwall what had happened to Basham and Sharp.
“They’re hamstring injuries and I don’t know how serious they are,” the Blades manager told the Sheffield Star.
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“It’s too early to know but we’ll have a look at them and then see.”
With a three point gap needing to be made up over four matches, Wilder needs all his best players. Yet Egan will now miss three of those games through suspension.
Meanwhile, depending on how bad their hamstring injuries are, Basham and Sharp might not even be back for the playoffs should the Blades miss out on the top two.
What now?
Luckily for Wilder, unlike last season when pushing for the playoffs, he has options in his squad. Basham and Egan could be replaced by fellow centre-backs Martin Cranie and Richard Stearman.
Alternatively, Enda Stevens has filled in at central defence in recent times. On the four occasions Stevens has done that the Blades have kept clean sheets.
However, that could see Marvin Johnson coming in at left wing back and the Middlesbrough loanee was arguably at fault for two of the three goals in the 3-2 home defeat to Bristol City.
As for Sharp, he is the captain and top scorer and will always be missed. Yet with both Madine and Scott Hogan finding their scoring form recently and David McGoldrick having 13 league goals this season, the skipper can be better replaced.