Sheffield United hit with triple blow | OneFootball

This is poor timing for the Blades with the new season right around the corner.

Sheffield United are dealing with three separate fitness issues at centre-back ahead of the new season.

Pre-season always brings with it the extra risk of injuries as players try to get up to speed for the long campaign that lies ahead of them. They're more vulnerable to picking up muscular issues because their bodies haven't been used to maintaining that workload over the summer, and it's come back to bite the Blades in one specific area.

The Star's Danny Hall has revealed that three of Ruben Selles' central defensive options are currently hampered by injuries or illness.

Sheffield United dealt triple defensive fitness blow

United travelled to France for a game against Ligue 1 side Nice on Wednesday that they lost 3-2. Their starting centre-half pairing for the contest was made up of Rhys Norrington-Davies and 18-year-old Dovydas Sasnauskas, who is yet to make his professional debut for the club.

Selles was essentially forced into picking the duo because of injuries suffered by Tyler Bindon and Jack Robinson. The latter didn't even make the trip across the English Channel for the match. New signing Bindon was with the squad but was unable to play. Meanwhile, Anel Ahmedhodzic picked up an illness that prevented him from coming with the group to France.

The rest of the squad was fairly strong, with the likes of Gus Hamer, Michael Cooper and Harrison Burrows all involved from the start.

Robinson came off early in a previous summer friendly against Burton Albion. Selles said to The Star that he hopes for the veteran defender to be back involved with training around the midpoint of next week.

Hall added that the expectation was that the 31-year-old would be ready for the start of the season, when the Blades take on Bristol City at Bramall Lane on 9th August at 17:30.

Sheffield United have an anxious fitness wait ahead of their opening game

The reasons behind the skipper's and Ahmedhodzic's absences should hopefully have cleared by the time that Selles leads this Blades side out in a competitive match for the first time versus Gerhard Struber's Robins.

Even with their potential returns, there's no guarantee that they will both be 100 per cent match-fit and able to play a full game. The Spaniard may have to call on a Norrington-Davies or even a Sasnauskas at some point in the contest if his preferred starting options aren't able to play a full 90 minutes. And that might be the best of all the potential scenarios.

There's certainly a possibility that the starting pair against Nice, or at least one of them, features in the first XI that takes on City in just over a week. That would by no means be an ideal start to Selles' reign.