Sheffield Wednesday: Carvalhal brings back Owls big guns

Captain Glenn Loovens, Sam Hutchinson and top scorer Fernando Forestieri were all rested for the FA Cup loss at Shrewsbury Town.

Kieran Lee started on the bench on Saturday and came on late on while Daniel Pudil and Barry Bannan were unused substitutes.

Head coach Carlos Carvalhal used Saturday’s tie as a chance to give run-outs to Michael Turner and Marco Matias, who have been on sidelines for some time with knee and hip problems respectively.

Carvalhal said: “It’s good that we are more strong and have more options.

“A lot of players have recovered from injuries which is good for us. They have comeback to the team and it’s important to have the full squad.

“Tom Lees will be back with us very, very soon so it’s just Joe [Wildsmith] who is outside of the squad. We will be ready to do a very good second half to the season.”

Carvalhal defended his team selection, insisting: “We controlled parts of the game very good and created some chances.

“There’s a short time until the game on Tuesday so it was important to protect the players.

“We did everything we could to get to the next round, and I will make no excuses, but our priority is the Championship.

“We will now fight 100 per cent to focus on doing well in the league.”

He paid tribute to the 1,502 supporters who made the trip to Shropshire.

“They were fantastic as always and showed us support until the end. They went away disappointed, like ourselves,” said Carvalhal. “We now have to focus on Burnley on Tuesday.”

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