Oli McBurnie, Max Lowe Sheffield United injury progress ahead of Nottingham Forest return

The Scottish international suffered the injury on United’s pre-season trip to Portugal and has not featured since. But his return will be a significant boost to the Blades’ Premier League campaign, after he showed his best form in United colours last season to help fire them back into the top flight.

Fellow striker Rhian Brewster is also “progressing” but is not as advanced as McBurnie in his own bid for fitness after a hamstring injury suffered almost a year ago at West Bromwich Albion.

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“Rhian’s progressing but we’re not considering him for minutes yet in terms of the first team, because of the length of time he’s had out,” Heckingbottom said. “We’re just taking our time with him.

“Oli’s back in training and for consideration however he’s missed the bulk of football over pre-season and we need to get him up to speed. The same with Vini Souza. Gus [Hamer] is a bit different as he did get exposed to some football and did get some minutes so he’s a but further on than the others as he had minutes.”

George Baldock and Max Lowe gave United injury scares after suffering issues during last weekend’s opening-day defeat at home to Crystal Palace.

“They’re okay,” Heckingbottom said. “A bit of fatigue. Lowey’s carrying a bit of an ankle injury, he did it on a sprinkler at Derby, but he came off with cramp the other day. So he’s fine.

“We have one or two back in this week and hopefully we’ll have Jayden [Bogle] back with us soon enough. Bit by bit we’ll get stronger, through injuries returning and bodies through the door as well.”