Alex Miller: Football is a secondary consideration - but stoppage has come at a stinking time for Sheffield Wednesday

Cases rising across the UK, the footballing schedule brought to its knees. It feels all too familiar at a time when just a few weeks ago the feeling was that we were out of this mess.

It goes without saying that the staging of football matches, though a hugely important component in our national way of life, is secondary to the health of anyone unlucky enough to contract the coronavirus. This column would do nothing to suggest anything to the contrary.

The outlining of updated protocols by the EFL made clear that a 14-man availability is deemed enough to stage a match – meaning the issue at Wednesday is not limited to a small number. All thoughts are with any Sheffield Wednesday players and staff who have contracted a virus that left Owls manager Darren Moore hospitalised just a few months ago.

But to coldly step away from those concerns and well-wishings and ponder on the football side of things, this stoppage in play has arrived at a bad time for Sheffield Wednesday – though there are pros to the cons.

Sure, players close-but-not-quite ready for their return from injury now have added time to heal; among that number the likes of Chey Dunkley, Dennis Adeniran and Sam Hutchinson.

But while it remains to be seen how much training these players will be able to undertake – or if they are able to train at all – there will be a prolonged period while staff seek to put volume in their legs ready for match action. That opportunity, for now, has been taken away.

What was palpable was the building momentum behind the team, unbeaten in 12 League One matches since Oxford at the start of October. Both side and supporter seemed in tune for the first time in a long time and things were coming together on the pitch.

A defensive injury crisis that has seen Wednesday play with no recognised centre-half returned back-to-back clean sheets and there was a spirit cultivated by Darren Moore that was growing.

The Accrington Stanley game is off already and Boxing Day’s Burton Albion match in serious jeopardy, meaning their next scheduled game will have come nearly three weeks after that breezy win at Crewe Alexandra.

Fresh EFL protocols are in place across all clubs and however long things are restricted it is up to Darren Moore, his staff and the players themselves to ensure this break in proceedings serves as an opportunity to rest and go again rather than a puncture in their build-up to what felt to be something exciting – and still can and absolutely should be.

If the virus doesn’t have a long-standing effect on the squad, if plans are successfully carried out that will ensure this rest does not build cobwebs, then a bolstered squad can pick up where they left off.

It seems likely that one of the Owls’ shifted matches will take place on the weekend of January 8, which had been set as a free weekend given Wednesday’s early exit from the FA Cup.

Let’s hope that by then Wednesday’s assault on the automatic promotion places is in full force.