Sheffield United: Huge defensive blow shrugged off by boss ahead of Blackpool visit

The Republic of Ireland centre-half received two cautions during yesterday’s win over Coventry City, the second for a block on Viktor Gyokeres with less than a quarter-of-an-hour of normal time remaining.

Although United manager Paul Heckingbottom admitted he had not seen the incident, either when it happened or on post-match footage collated by the club’s analytics department before addressing the media, he told The Star: “Do you know what? The fact I’ve not heard any complaints about it in there (the dressing room) afterwards makes me think it was another booking. There wasn’t anybody going on about it and so that, right now, tends to tell me something.”

Leading 3-1 when Egan was dismissed, soon after Gyokeres had replied to goals by James McAtee, Ciaran Clark and substitute Tommy Doyle, United survived his exit to strengthen their grip on the Championship’s second automatic promotion berth. They began their preparations for the trip to Bloomfield Road eight points clear of third-placed Blackburn Rovers, with Chris Basham likely to be drafted back into the starting eleven to compensate for Egan’s absence.

Although the 30-year-old absence will complicate United’s planning for a match which pits them against opponents ranked 22nd in the table, Heckingbottom said: “We’ve got lads coming back and who have come back. It’s the first time in a long while that we’ve been in that ind of situation, where there are options and things we can do.”