Blades contract negotiations parked to one side by Chris Wilder

Several Blades players see their deals expire this summer including Stefan Scougall, Marc McNulty and loan player Jay O’Shea while the likes of Billy Sharp, Paul Coutts, Chris Basham, Matt Done and Kieron Freeman all had clauses in their contracts which automatically triggered an extension after a certain amount of games were played.

Wilder, for his part, is devoting all his energies towards taking the club back to the.

He said: “I am not dealing with any contract situations between now and the end of the season. There is an obvious bigger issue and I have said to all the players whose contracts are up – through the skipper – that I won’t deal with anything at all.

“I don’t want anything to derail us or move our focus from the biggest thing, which is the selfless act of trying to get this football club out of this division. Individual issues, whether it is anybody, will be left to when the season ends.

“There is some stuff you have to deal with of course, such as if there is an approach for one of your players and stuff happens.

“But I am not a lover of dealing with situations throughout the season. Some of the boys had (contract) triggers and we were comfortable with that. But I don’t think going forward that we will be dealing with people mid-season.”

Meanwhile, Wilder confirmed that Scougall, McNulty, Leon Clarke, James Wilson, Harry Chapman, David Brooks and Louis Reed will play in a private game next week to boost their match fitness following their return to the first-team fray.

He added: “I should imagine there will be a couple more of those games chucked in before the end of the season.”