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Sheffield United have introduced a series of extraordinary cost-cutting measures to avoid entering administration as soon as next week. 

Sportsmail can reveal the full extent of the financial crisis gripping the Championship club, who have failed to pay suppliers and turned off the undersoil heating at the training ground in a desperate attempt to ensure they can afford to pay their players this month.

Under EFL rules any club entering administration before next Thursday is automatically docked 12 points this season, which would be a hammer blow to United’s prospects of winning promotion to the Premier League. 

Despite the club’s acute financial problems Paul Heckingbottom’s side are well placed to return to the top-flight after two years in the Championship as they are second in the table, six points ahead of third-placed Middlesbrough with nine games of the season remaining.

United were placed under a transfer embargo in January after failing to pay transfer fee instalments due to other clubs, with millions of pounds understood to be owed to Liverpool and Malmo for Rhian Brewster and Bosnian defender Anel Ahmedhodzic respectively. The club have been desperately attempting to get through the season without entering administration or being docked points for late payment of players ever since.