Sheffield United man hails ‘incredible’ Jack O’Connell as injured defender’s new role revealed

With the influential defender still battling for fitness after two operations on his injured knee, he has been breaking up his rehabilitation by taking sessions in the gym with his teammates and was namechecked as a “massive” influence recently by Oli McBurnie, who entered the World Cup break with nine goals in his last 14 appearances.

The striker’s turnaround – he previously went 43 league games without finding the back of the net for United – has been put down to changes he has made, both mentally and physically. But the Scottish international also revealed: "Jack was really good with me in the summer, pushing me in the gym. I was at the best point I had ever been and he's been a massive part of that.

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"In Portugal we would do a session in the morning and I would say to Jack: 'I'm done.’ But he was like: ‘No, we’re back in at 2pm and I’m going to smash you again.’

"Jack's unbelievable. His mentality is incredible. I have not seen anyone like it. If you could see him in the gym, he comes out absolutely dripping in sweat. I say to him: ‘Mate, no one's even watching you, you could easily just shirk that session, you’ve been out two years or whatever.’ But he's got the best mentality of any footballer I have seen.”

While many of his teammates flew away to enjoy some much-needed rest and relaxation during the first week of the World Cup break, O’Connell instead continued his rehabilitation at a private gym in Bolton, undergoing tough physical sessions under the guidance of co-owner Daniel Baldwin.

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"He drove me on in the summer and we had a little club going, just doing that every day,” McBurnie added. “Me and him would be texting and sending each other our gym sessions, I was getting excited about it. That’s how much my life has changed. I hated the gym before!

“If anyone at Swansea could hear me talking now, they wouldn’t believe me. I don't think I touched the gym once while I was there. Little things like that, in the long term they’re not that big a change but they made an impact.”

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O’Connell was one of the most influential players at Bramall Lane when he was struck down by the knee issue, having established himself as a key part of United’s overlapping centre-halves system and surely putting himself on the verge of a call-up to England’s senior squad.

“It's so unfair almost because he’s the most dedicated professional I’ve ever seen, in terms of doing gym and training,” said McBurnie. “And he’s the one who gets such a bad injury. I’ve played with players, and even me, who didn’t look after themselves and didn’t have injuries until now. I just feel so bad for him, because we know how unlucky he’s been. And how good he is at football.”

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