Injured knee ligaments leaves Blades with shortage of experience

Sheffield United’s promotion chances have been dealt a major blow by the news that captain Chris Morgan will miss the remainder of the season.

Scans have confirmed that Morgan suffered knee ligament damage in the Blades’ 1-0 loss to Coventry and manager Gary Speed must now consider his options ahead of their home game with Ipswich.

Speed had already been robbed of Morgan’s services earlier in the campaign because of a hamstring problem, but he had been making strides towards returning to full fitness by starting their last four games.

Sheffield United are also without fellow defenders Rob Kozluk and Stephen Jordan for the clash with Ipswich and Speed faces a dilemma who to pair with Arsenal loanee Kyle Bartley at the heart of the defence.

One option is on-loan Sunderland defender Nyron Nosworthy, while Frenchman Jean Calve could operate at either centre back or full back.

Meanwhile, Johnny Ertl and Matt Lowton could fill in as Speed looks to find a replacement in the emergency loan market.

Speed said: “It is a massive blow for Chris and the club and realistically we won’t see him in action again until pre-season training next July.

“The lads we have that play in the central defender’s role will miss his experience.”

Sheffield United are 6/4 to beat Ipswich as they look to start to climb the Championship table from their current position of 18th, just two points clear of the relegation places.

Ipswich have not beaten Sheffield United in their last eight meetings, but are 9/5 to end this run.

They took a step in the right direction when keeping their first clean sheet since mid-September in their recent victory over Millwall.

Sheffield United have won just four of their opening 14 games and this has seen their price slip to 100/1 to win the Championship this season. See the complete Championship winners betting odds market.