"Sean came on for the last 20 minutes of today's behind-closed-doors practice match against Sheffield United, and it was great to see him back on the pitch," said Rovers No 2 Richard O'Kelly yesterday.

"He's looked okay in training for the last couple of weeks or so but he needs to get a bit more confidence (following a series of knee operations) on and off the training pitch, and to get more games under his belt.

"He needs to play more practice games or part games for us. He's not yet ready for us to consider trying to get him out on loan but in a couple of weeks' time he probably will be.

"A lot of that will be down to the medical staff and the situation here. If he comes back strongly it may be that we can't afford to let him out on loan.

"In an ideal world you'd like him to play part games and for him to step up his training and build him up to a full game and then hopefully first-team games.

"If we can give him that here then great, but if we can't we'll have to look at other options."

Reflecting on the game played at the Blades training ground, O'Kelly said: "It was a good work-out for the players.

"Those players who haven't played much recently played almost 90 minutes and the ones who have played a bit played half-an-hour or so.

"Jack Wilson played for 20 minutes and gave a good show.

"I would like to think that he's made progress since he's been here. That's why we brought him in - to try and develop him.

"I don't think he's ready for the first-team squad at the moment but we are trying to see if there is a player who is going to be out there in a year or so.

"What he did today was to show a definite improvement on his last practice game."