Sheffield United: Ismaila Coulibaly work permit process comes under the spotlight

The 22-year-old made his competitive debut for Paul Heckingbottom’s side during last weekend’s FA Cup tie against Millwall, with coaching staff set to postpone a decision on whether or not to loan him out in order to gain further experience in England until the closing stages of the transfer window.

Having spent the first two seasons of his career with United on loan at their sister club Beerschot, Coulibaly was recalled when the Belgians were relegated from their country’s top-flight amid concerns he would not qualify to be employed in the UK under post-Brexit rules.

Although it is not clear if the deal Coulibaly negotiated with United following his move from Sarpsborg contains an option to extend, Heckingbottom said: “There’s an application on Ismaila, in terms of his work permit. It’s not to do with minutes (he plays).”

Having recovered from the injury which forced him to miss the beginning of the campaign, Coulibaly has trained with United’s first team squad this week as they prepare for tomorrow’s game against Stoke City. Heckingbottom’s side are second in the Championship table and nine points clear of third-placed Blackburn Rovers.

Earlier this term, United considered the possibility of allowing Coulibaly to depart on a temporary basis in order to accelerate his acclimatisation to the English game.

Speaking ahead of the meeting with Alex Neil’s team, Heckingbottom was asked if that is still a possibility.

“Not at the minute, where we are with bodies,” he replied. “We have a responsibility to get him back in shape. He played 60 minutes in the reserves at York this week and there was no reaction. We’ll look at it towards the end, definitely. We don’t want to leave ourselves short and we want to be confident with where we’re at.”

“Like I say, we have a responsibility to ourselves and also to Ismaila, to make sure that everything is okay and as it should be,” Heckingbottom added. “And we’ll meet those.”