Head coach Uwe Rosler has confirmed that Luke Murphy will be sidelined for United’s pre-season schedule after picking up an innocuous injury in training.

The midfielder, who featured 32 times during 2014/15, is now expected to miss all five friendly fixtures over the coming weeks - starting at Harrogate Town on Friday evening -  after twisting his knee, unchallenged, at Thorp Arch.

Rosler said: "It’s very unfortunate for Luke, I was looking forward to see him in action.

"I rate him very highly from my time in League One when he was playing for Crewe.

"He had a strong end of the season last year and came back to training motivated.

"Everything went his way and went well until he twisted his knee with nobody around him. It’s a very unfortunate situation.

"He needed a minor operation to clear one or two things up and we expect him back within four to seven weeks.

"Nobody wants to miss the pre-season but we have good medical staff and sports science – we will get him up to speed in one-to-one sessions and in the team work.

"When you have such a dedicated player like Luke, he will also do a lot of his own training to get up to speed. I don’t think that will be a problem."