Sheffield United boss’s next transfer priority after Auston Trusty deal completed

A series of injuries meant that United were already looking light in the striker department even before confirmation earlier this week that Ndiaye, last season’s joint-top scorer in United’s promotion campaign, had been sold to his boyhood club Marseille. Oli McBurnie, who tied with Ndiaye with 15 goals last season, and Rhian Brewster are both sidelined while Daniel Jebbison has missed periods of pre-season with his own injury issue.

There was some relief at the top of the pitch when Benie Traore finally met up to train with his United teammates after a long delay over his visa earlier this week, after a month kicking his heals while his move to United was first finalised and then the necessary paperwork was completed. United will now work hard with the Ivorian to get him as close to peak condition as possible before the start of the new season on August 12 but Heckingbottom - after completing a deal for Arsenal’s Auston Trusty, who has signed a four-year deal after moving from Arsenal - now wants more options at the top of the pitch.

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In the absence of his more established teammates teenager Will Osula has played a big part of United’s pre-season and could easily be going into Saturday’s final friendly against Stuttgart with five goals to his name over the warm-up campaign. He had a goal wrongly chalked off at Estoril earlier this month and has twice hit the woodwork, with a mixture of profligacy and opposition goalkeepers ensuring his wait for a first of pre-season goes on.

“We need more,” said Heckingbottom, who admitted he would not have sanctioned young Oliver Arblaster’s loan departure to Port Vale if he knew United would struggle to sign midfield reinforcements. “We need more attackers on the pitch. We are going into the Premier League, so we need as many good players as we can get.

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“We can still keep them [Jebbison and Osula]. It just depends on how they are doing. If I had known we were this tight I would not have let Blaster out. I would have kept him about. Over the last few windows we have lost a lot of senior first-team players, and that has been filled by academy boys.

“Which is great; we have given a lot of debuts, it’s healthy on your balance sheet and all this kind of stuff. But we want to develop them. It’s no good them being around us, training and having cameo appearances from the bench.

“It’s great to start with, but what if they are needed next year? We need to make sure they are developing as well. For the health of the club long-term, it’s important we get players now. There are lots of reasons why we need players now.”

Brewster is back in training with United after his bad hamstring injury while McBurnie’s foot injury was not as bad as first feared, with Heckingbottom hopeful the Scottish international may recover in time to face Crystal Palace on the opening day of the season.