Sheffield United’s pre-season plans have suffered a further setback with the news the club has been unable to find a suitable opponent to fill the void left by Norwich. The Blades were due to face the Canaries at Bramall Lane tomorrow, but the fixture was cancelled after a small number of positive covid tests in the Norwich camp. United officials tried to find a new team for the fixture, which would have been only the third pre-season match, but in a statement they revealed they have been unsuccessful.
Sheffield United said: “The Blades have extensively sought a fresh opponent but haven’t been able to confirm a fixture and apologise for the inconvenience to supporters who purchased tickets. Supporters that purchased tickets online or over the telephone will automatically be refunded back on to their original payments cards in due course. There is no need to contact the box office. Supporters that paid in cash will need to come in person to the ticket office in order for their refund to be processed. Supporters who paid via chip & in person at the ticket office will be contacted in due course. Any supporters that are uncontactable will automatically have their refunds processed back on to their ticketing accounts as account credit. Those who have purchased a SUTV Live stream of the fixture will be automatically refunded.”
The news will come as a blow to manager Slavisa Jokanovic ahead of the season opener against Birmingham, as preparation has been far from ideal. They will head into the match off the back of just two friendlies – against Gibraltar side Europa Point during their training camp in Spain and Wednesday night’s victory at Doncaster. The Blades boss also lost valuable time on the training pitch with his new squad, after the first team were forced to isolate on their return from Spain.
