Is Qatar World Cup effect to blame for so many injuries? Sheffield United's Ben Osborn thinks it might be

Four weeks have been taken out of the Championship fixture list to accommodate the group stages and opening knock-out round of the first World Cup played during a European season.

Just two weeks – one at the start, one at the end – have been added as compensation, and one of the weekends was wiped out when football bucked the sporting trend and decided not to play days after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Meanwhile, Sheffield United have been crippled by an injury list often in double figures and too often including the versatile Osborn.

"It's been quite crazy the amount of players we've had injured but speaking to people at other clubs it seems to be similar across the board," he said. "I don't know if it's because of the World Cup and the fixtures and everything.

"The people coming back are probably getting chucked back in a bit earlier because needs must but hopefully we're over the worst of it now and we're starting to get a few of the lads back, a few senior lads.

"From my point of view I've not changed anything I've been doing and (yet) I've been picking up injuries. I can't put it down to training or the things we do in the game.

"Clubs have tried to lower training intensity, keep it high, do more in the gym, do less in the gym, and there's still people breaking down. It might just be the amount of games and the intensity.

"It's always been difficult but maybe this season it's just taken its toll a little bit more."

Osborn returned from an ankle injury at home to Blackpool on Saturday but Enda Stevens, John Fleck, Jack O'Connell, Sander Berge, Max Lowe, Ismaila Coulibaly, Jayden Bogle, Ciaran Clark and Daniel Jebbison are still out, whilst Paul Heckingbottom has revealed Oli McBurnie is playing with a hernia problem that will be operated on during the World Cup.

Osborn admitted his injuries – rolling an ankle whilst tweaking the hamstring in his opposite leg – caused a bit of soul-searching.

"The physio had never seen anything like it," he said. "If I was a dog, they'd have put me down!

"Naturally you (question) it when you get injured but in my case it (the hamstring problem) was a similar one to last season so I wanted to get to the bottom of it

"I didn't do yoga as much as I used to so I've started doing that again.

"I've just got to maybe be a bit more clever on certain days and take a bit more rest. It was probably an over-use injury."

With the authorities seemingly unprepared to do any soul-searching about the demands they put on players, clubs must help themselves, and the Blades have not lately.

McBurnie was suspended against Stoke City for a fifth yellow card of the season, and Wes Foderingham red-carded after the full-time whistle against Blackpool.

The Blades did appeal Foderingham's red card, they and Blackpool – who had Shayne Lavery dismissed in the same incident – arguing their players grappling did not constitute violent conduct.

But both the Blades and Blackpool – who host Hull City on Wednesday – failed to overturn the decision.

"We do need to be more professional and stop these silly bookings," admitted Osborn.

"We just need to be a little bit more streetwise, a little bit more careful, and not do anything you're going to get unnecessary bookings for."