Sheffield Wednesday’s Steve Bruce gives injury update in ‘big couple of days’ for sidelined players

The international break fell at a good time for the injury-hit Owls, who have been without first team players Fernando Forestieri and Lucas Joao in recent matches as Steven Fletcher, Sam Hutchinson and Barry Bannan all picked up knocks in the last match against Blackburn Rovers.

But Bruce confirmed that the rest over the break in the domestic season had given three of Wednesday’s starting team from ten days ago a strong chance of being available for selection for the game at the Bet365 Stadium. 

Speaking to the Star, the Owls chief said: “I expect Hutchinson and Aarons to be ok, we expect Barry to be ok because he’s training tomorrow so we’ll see how he goes.

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“It’s a big couple of days. Fletcher is a bit of a worry and a concern, he’s the main concern that we have got.

“Forestieri will be training tomorrow and will step up training - same with Joao and the same with Hooper. Hopefully there’s a bit of an upsurge in that but there’s a long way to go yet until he’s physically ready.”

Only four of the Owls squad were unable to take a break as they were called up for their countries, as Keiren Westwodd, Michael Hector, Liam Palmer and Atdhe Nuhiu all made trips abroad with their respective national teams.

And speaking of the international break, Bruce said: “All I’m interested in is that they come back alright. Palmer will come back tomorrow, he’s ok. Obviously Westwood didn’t play, big Atdhe played for ten minutes.

“I don’t watch how they do, I just want to know physically they are ok. That’s my main concern at the moment, that they’re all physically ok but some of them have still got one game to play.”