Steve Watson is another who was due to figure in today's final friendly against Wigan but will return next week instead.

All three will play in a private match on Tuesday, manager Brian Laws revealed.

It is a change of plan by the Owls manager, who was earlier pencilling in Jeffers, Smith and Watson to play at least some part in the Wigan match.

But Laws finally decided that comebacks in a controlled environment out of the public eye were more appropriate than outings in the full spotlight of a showpiece event.

Watson has picked up a slight back strain in training so Laws decided to take absolutely no risks with his club captain this weekend.

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The Wednesday boss said that all three players will be ready for next Saturday's opening Championship match against Burnley.

But it appears open to debate whether he will plunge any of them straight into the starting line-up, particularly Jeffers, who has had a long lay-off with ankle trouble, and Smith, who has not seen match action since going off the 38th minute of the first friendly, in Holland.

Akpo Sodje looked set to get the all-clear for today's match (kick-off 3pm) after suffering shoulder bruising in Tuesday's friendly at Chesterfield.

Laws said: "Francis Jeffers has trained ever so well, and we've been really pleased with him, but rather than give him a cameo role against Wigan, we concluded it would be better to bring him back in a private game, in a controlled environment.

"This will be his first game for six months; it will be out of the public eye and there will be no added pressure for him to do anything clever.

"Likewise, Jimmy Smith has done ever so well, but in the end we've decided to give him an outing behind closed doors, and the same goes for Steve Watson."

Wednesday have noted that Wigan dished out a 6-0 drubbing to Barnsley this week and the Owls will have been determined to offer stiffer resistance to Steve Bruce's outfit.

Laws said: "We'd like a nice result, but that's not the be all and end all. We've been going over one or two things in training and we hope to put in a sound performance, with of course everything being geared towards us starting the League campaign well next Saturday."

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