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McFadzean, the older brother of another ex-Blade in winger Callum, came through the United academy but had to forge a career elsewhere, representing the likes of Crawley Town, MK Dons and Burton Albion before joining City in 2019.

McFadzean hasn’t played since mid-November with a calf injury but he and Matty Godden were described as “in decent nick” ahead of the Boxing Day trip to Bramall Lane.

“They’re starting to make some progress which is good and they’re out of their boots, which is a decent sign,” Robins added. “Hopefully they’ll be back as soon as possible.”

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City have a number of other injury concerns ahead of the game, with the likes of Fankaty Dabo, Gustavo Hamer and Tyler Walker discussed by Robins in his pre-match press briefing.

“We’re trying to get Dabo there; he’s trying to get there," Robins said. “He was on the bench on Saturday, but we were unable to utilise him in any of that game with the way it was going and where he is at.

“He is getting closer, and I almost made the change on Wednesday, but there was no need to do that. I want him to get more training time into his legs and he’s managed to do that today he had a tough session and that will bring him closer to it.

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“We need everyone as fit as we can as quickly as we can because they’re all important.

“Hamer is okay. It’s been a busy day and he’s recovering from the game and it’s a recovery day so there’s a lot of different factors to it, so they’re doing that.”

On former Forest man Walker, the long-serving City manager added: “We’re at the mercy of Tyler’s healing powers with him and we just have to wait until he feels comfortable managing any pain he might have, so we have to just wait and see.

“Tyler will not be available for another month or so.”

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