Ollie Norwood injury clarified as “fluke” condemns Sheffield United to Rotherham defeat

The former Northern Ireland international was substituted after receiving treatment from the Blades’ physios to the injury, sustained after a mid-air collision with his young teammate in the first half of United’s 1-0 defeat.

But assistant boss Stuart McCall clarified after the game that Norwood did not suffer concussion, which would have triggered the protocols aimed at protecting players and potentially have caused him to miss more of United’s pre-season campaign.

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“It was a competitive game for both sides, chances for both and we could have done better with a few chances we had,” McCall said.

“It’s about getting minutes, building a bit of confidence and getting through without any injuries. And other than Ollie Norwood, who’s got a 10-stitch gash on his head, we were okay as well, injury-wise.

“He’s fine, he wasn’t concussed. He’s had 10 stitches, and no surprise it was Harrison who was involved, because he wanted to win every ball in there. You can’t turn it off.”

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United were sentenced to defeat courtesy of a freak goal from Millers trialist Andre Green, whose bizarre scorpion flick caught out Wes Foderingham and settled in the back of his net. The home side also hit the bar through Cafu’s free-kick, while Daniel Jebbison went closest for the Blades before being denied twice by goalkeeper Viktor Johansson and a superb block from Cameron Humphreys.

“Sometimes, in pre-season, it’s what you get out of it,” added McCall, ahead of United’s behind-closed-doors friendly against Girona in Manchester tomorrow [Wednesday]. “We want to start building patterns but we had some young boys out there and a lot of experienced boys, like John Egan and Sander Berge, will play tomorrow.

“We’ll go into Saturday [at Derby] with an eye on a lot of people getting 90 minutes. You don’t like losing any game, so that was disappointing. The goal is a fluke of a goal but there were some decent things, and every game there are things to work on.”