Sheffield United boss Paul Heckingbottom has told The Star that he is worried about the future of his loanees moving into the January transfer window. 

At the time of writing the Blades have the likes of Morgan Gibbs-White, Ben Davies, Conor Hourihane and Robin Olsen at their disposal, with the quartet having arrived on a temporary basis from Wolves, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Roma respectively over the summer.

However speculation has been rife over the futures of all four players, with the prospect of each individual potentially returning to their parent sides in the new year being widely talked up.

Now Heckingbottom has admitted that he is worried that he could lose said players at the turn of the new year, as the Sheffield United manager stated the following recently:

"We want to keep them. We think we are a good place for loan players to come and be in a good group, get game time and push and hopefully climb the league.

"A lot of it is out of our control but we are happy with them, they are happy with the club so hopefully we can keep that going forward. It's always about playing, because players want to play. If it's down to the player, then players want to play."

All four players have featured regularly and semi regularly for the Blades this term and have certainly played their parts in helping the Steel City side to move further up the league standings in recent weeks.

Gibbs-White and Davies are the duo that have been the most strongly linked with an early departure from Bramall Lane in recent weeks.

The Verdict 

Heckingbottom understandably doesn't want to lose what would be a substantial chunk of his squad in the new year and it is for that reason that he will fight tooth and nail to keep hold of them.

Gibbs-White in particular has been a breath of fresh air for the Blades, whilst the likes of Hourihane and Davies have begun to really come into the type of form that was expected of them.

Olsen has been a disanointing addition up to this point, however he does provide good back up for Wes Foderingham in goal.

Keeping hold of these four players will be important for the club if they want to be up there challenging for a top six place come May next year.