Sheffield United dealt major blow with ex-Southampton man set to miss Portsmouth trip
Former Southampton man Joe Rothwell will miss Sheffield United’s trip to Pompey this weekend.
Pompey have been given a significant boost for Saturday’s crucial Championship contest against Sheffield United.
John Mousinho’s men return to Fratton Park this weekend as they look to bounce back from their frustrating 1-0 defeat to play-off chasing Preston North End last time out.
Chris Wilder will, though, be without one key member of his squad for the trip to the south coast, with new arrival Joe Rothwell now set to miss out.
The former Southampton man made the move to Bramall Lane in the transfer window as the Blades looked to strengthen in a bid to ease any relegation fears.
The midfielder was one of two deadline-day signings made by the Steel City out and penned an 18-month deal following his Rangers exit.
However, Rothwell’s debut was far from a success, having been sent off just 35 minutes after coming off the bench in Monday’s 2-1 defeat to Middlesbrough.
The 30-year-old was given his marching orders by referee Gavin Ward in the 80th minute after a late tackle on Hayden Hackney, with Sheffield United chasing an equaliser.
The deadline-day arrival will now serve a three-game ban, with his suspension beginning for Saturday’s trip to Fratton Park.
Having only joined Rangers in the summer, Monday’s outing represented Rothwell’s fourth appearance of the campaign after falling out of favour with Gers boss Danny Rohl.
Although Wilder has no disagreement with the red card decision, the Sheffield United boss has put the midfielder’s dismissal down to frustration and a lack of game time.
Chris Wilder verdict on Joe Rothwell red card
He told our sister paper, The Star: ‘I think it’s just a mistimed tackle. I've got no arguments with the decision. If you can give me five seconds, yet again, to talk about the consistency level of the referees. It's just absolutely so poor. It's ridiculous for both teams.
‘The consistency of the decisions. That didn't play a part in the result, it was just the general flow of the game. He [Ward] was just the star of the show and wanted to break it up all the time. We don't want to come and see him, we want to go and see two teams having a right go at it. And, for the majority of the time, that was the case.
‘But for Joe it was maybe a bit of frustration. Maybe not playing football for the early part of the season and wanting to make his mark. It's a mistimed tackle. I've got no issue with the decision off the back of that.
‘He's got his head in his hands straight away and in the changing room afterwards. And obviously that made it double difficult for us to build on that momentum that we obviously had after getting back into the game.’
Sheffield United make the trip to Fratton Park on Saturday afternoon sitting just six points above the Blues, having lost three of their previous six league matches.
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