'It doesn't look good': Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder bracing himself for bad news regarding influential defender after Burnley loss

SHEFFIELD United manager Chris Wilder is bracing himself for bad news regarding Harry Souttar with the influential centre-half coming off with an ankle injury late on in his side's 2-0 Boxing Day reverse to promotion rivals Burnley.

Souttar, on a season-long loan from Leicester City, hobbled off towards the end of the Bramall Lane defeat, with United playing out the final minutes of he game with 10 men.

Midfielder Vini Souza came off at the break with a hamstring niggle, with Jesurun Rak-Sakyi missing the game with a similar issue, with the Blades chief also revealing after the match that a couple of other players were struggling with illness.

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Wilder, whose side suffered heir first home reverse of he campaign to a Clarets side who are now just a point behind them in the table, said: "Jes wasn't able to be involved because of a tight hamstring that he had off the back of the game at Cardiff.

Sheffield United co-chairmen Steven Rosen (left) and Helmy Eltoukhy during the Sky Bet Championship match against Burnley at Bramall Lane. Photo: Richard Sellers/PA Wire.Sheffield United co-chairmen Steven Rosen (left) and Helmy Eltoukhy during the Sky Bet Championship match against Burnley at Bramall Lane. Photo: Richard Sellers/PA Wire.
Sheffield United co-chairmen Steven Rosen (left) and Helmy Eltoukhy during the Sky Bet Championship match against Burnley at Bramall Lane. Photo: Richard Sellers/PA Wire.

"Vini's hamstring tightened up as well. They are minor blows, there might be a big blow with Souttar because that didn't look great and his reaction to coming off wasn't good.

"He's a brave old soldier, but that didn't look great. So we'll have to wait and see what the results of the scans are. It doesn't look good, but we'll see what happens when the results of the scan come through.

"We also lost Rhys Norrington-Davies to illness and Rhian (Brewster) wasn't great over the last couple of days."

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Alongside failing to register a tenth successive home win as they dropped points at Bramall Lane for the first time since August 17 - on an afternoon when co-chairmen Steven Rosen and Helmy Eltoukhy were in attendance for their first time in their new roles following confirmation of US consortium COH Sports’ takeover - United also conceded their first goal on home soil in just over 15 hours when Josh Brownhill headed the visitors in front just before the break.

The Clarets doubled their lead when Zian Flemming's strike took a significant deflection early in the second half, with Wilder unhappy with the circumstances leading up to that killer second goal.

He added: "We talked about our reaction at half-time. In the first 10 minutes of the second half, I thought we were on top and against the run of play, we concede through a massive deflection.

"But the lead up was absolutely ridiculous. They get awarded a free-kick on the edge of our box and ours was exactly the same, if not worse, on the edge of their box when Callum O'Hare gets absolutely wiped out.

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"I'm not sure if it was (Josh) Cullen, if it was, it would have been a second yellow and a red card.

"But I hope people don't go away thinking all of a sudden we're miles behind everyone, we're still massively in the hunt. Burnley are the big winners on paper but I think they're still behind us in the table.

"That's not me being clever or arrogant, it shows the work we've done so far and the work we need to do in the second part of the season to be in it going into the last six games."

Offering his thoughts on his side’s victory, Burnley chief Scott Parker commented: "It was a really solid, good away performance. We spoke about coming to a very good side and the stadium as well - at this time of year on Boxing Day - and we knew there would be an extra energy in the stadium.

"We knew we had to take the energy out of the stadium and manage certain situations. I thought we did that very, very well.”

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