Oli McBurnie's Sheffield United season over after stress fracture

The day after it was confirmed Billy Sharp has had to undergo an operation on his tendon, McBurnie was revealed to have a stress fracture in his foot which means he will not play until next season either.

Midfielder John Fleck is a doubt for Saturday's game at Wolverhampton Wanderers, which could be the one which sends them down if Newcastle United avoid defeat at home to West Ham United earlier in the day. The Blades are more optimistic on the Scot, who has a “stiff groin”.

It took some of the shine off Sander Berge's return to injury this week.

“Oli McBurnie s out for the season with a stress fracture of the fifth metatarsal,” revealed interim manager Paul Heckingbottom.

“The positive is Sander Berge's trained again another day, three full days with us now, so we'll keep progressing him and hopefully he gets involved sooner rather than later.

“Flecky we'll assess on Friday. He's not trained all week do far, but hopefully he'll be fine and back in.”

On Sharp, Heckingbottom said: “It's a blow when you get a second diagnosis that it's tendon issue that's going to require surgery rather than just rest and recuperation which we were hoping for. He's out for the season.

“It's a blow and a loss because we were hoping we'd have home back for the last few days.

“Because the procedure was yesterday we've just had an update on how it's gone and I've not looked into or spoken to Watto (head physio Paul Watson) about what it looks like beyond the next few days.

“As a player I've been there, you just want to know what's next. There's a real metal side to an injury like that, especially when it's worse than first thought and you have to have an operation. We're just bothered about Sharpy getting his head around that and in the right place to start his rehabilitation”

Chris Basham is still not back in training after the calf injury he picked up in training ahead of March's FA Cup quarter-final at Chelsea.

“We'll hopefully get him on the grass at the back end of this week and then build him up next. It's a strange one.

“We've been at this stage before with him and this was the next step, where he broke down.

“The medical team have done a good job with him and really taken the load off his calf and gradually built it up again from scratch.

“As for Jack Rodwell and Jack Robinson, who have also been out injured for some time, Heckingbottom said: “Robbo's closer than Jack Rodwell. Jack will probably still be a while, not in any return-to-play protocols yet.

“Robbo's a week or two behind Sander.”

If Newcastle pick up any points in Saturday's early kick-off, defeat for the Blades will make their relegation official.

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