Abstract-In this contribution we exploit the benefits of combining the diversity gains arising from cooperation, multiple propagation paths and from the opportunistic relaying of multiple users. Our goal is to improve the energy-efficiency of the amplify-and-forward single-relay assisted single-carrier frequency-division multiple-access uplink, where the single relay considered may support a single user or may be shared by multiple users communicating over dispersive channels subject to large-scale fading. Based on the proposed amalgam of single-tap frequency-domain equalisation and a diversity combining aided receiver relying on the minimum mean-square error criterion, three different relay selection schemes designed for either singleuser or multi-user relaying scenarios are investigated, when combined with source/relay power sharing, which employ imperfect power control. Our results demonstrate that at a bit error ratio of 10 −4 , the proposed receiver is capable of saving 2dB power by achieving a higher cooperative diversity gain than the conventional receiver. Moreover, a beneficial energy-efficiency improvement may be achieved, when the cooperative regime operates at E b /N0 < 0. Most importantly, when the shadowing variance is increased from 4dB to 8dB, the energy consumption gain gleaned from our multi-user and multi-access relay selection schemes may increase to 4∼9 compared to the direct transmission in the absence of shadowing at E b /N0 = −10dB.