Sheffield United: Florent Cuvelier fit for Oldham visit

Adkins confirmed Cuvelier, the former Belgium under-21 international was withdrawn midway through Saturday’s draw with Fleetwood Town due to a hamstring complaint but described the substitution as a precautionary measure.

“Flo felt a little bit of tightness there,” Adkins said. “But it doesn’t seem to be anything serious and he should be fine.

“You’ve always got to be careful in those situations because you don’t want to aggrivate something of that nature. To be fair, though, it’s probably expected to some degree. Flo has played a lot recently after a long spell out.”

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Cuvelier returned to action following an 11 month absence during United’s recent victory Port Vale and has started all three of their outings since. Having praised his “energy” and “drive” in midfield, Adkins will be keen not to lose Cuvelier for a match set to have a crucial bearing on United’s play-off hopes.

They trail sixth-placed Barnsley by six points with 11 games remaining. Oldham, by contrast, are locked in a battle for League One survival having slipped to 22nd but boast games in hand on all of the teams above them in the rankings.

Adkins, who also hopes leading goalscorer Billy Sharp will feature following illness, said: “We’ve got a few bumps and bruises at the moment. Probably, to be fair, as you would expect.

“Every team will have them at this stage and it’s not something we are mentioning or using as an excuse. But it is something that we will have to manage.”

“We want as many of the lads available as possible ,” Adkins added. “And in the best possible shape.”