Owls manager Brian Laws will want to make absolutely certain that the injury-hit striker is fully ready before he returns to the first team.

Sodje and the Owls paid dearly after he made a comeback last season following a lay-off with an ankle injury: he soon broke down again and was ruled out for the last three months of the campaign.

"We've got to learn the lesson of last season," admits Laws. "He played when he wasn't 100 per cent. The lad wanted to play, and we needed him, but it cost us, because he was out for a long time.

"We're not going to go down that route this time."

Sodje's major comeback last season - and his second one after he was first hit by ankle trouble in November - came in the Sheffield derby in January when he made a triumphant return, scoring the opening goal in a 2-0 win.

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He then played in the FA Cup replay against Derby and started the League game at Wolves - the Owls' opponents today - but went off at Molineux and missed the rest of the season.

He is now expected to be out for up to eight weeks with the tendon injury that he suffered last Saturday.

Like Laws, he wants to make sure that when he returns, he is fully ready.

"I've got to rest for now, and take it nice and steady to begin with," he says.

"Hopefully I will heal quicker than what they're saying. Fingers crossed it will heal properly; I don't want to come back and get injured again."

He ruptured a tendon in the back of his knee when he was running for a ball in the 4-1 win against Burnley, after he had scored twice and terrorised the Clarets' defence.

With Marcus Tudgay also ruled out today, Laws could field an extra midfield player and use Deon Burton as a lone central striker.

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