Alex Miller: Reported Sheffield Wednesday signing should put more fuel in tank of fallen star man

It came at a time in which director’s boxes at Sheffield Wednesday games were filled with representatives from clubs wanting to get their sneak peek of the him, then the reigning Owls player of the year.

Sure, the bar wasn’t set especially high in the 2019/20 season in which he grabbed that gong, but he was a standout performer in that campaign. Tall and lightning fast with a recovery ability up there with anything else in the Championship, Iorfa was wanted by a host of clubs in that division and higher. And it was easy to see why.

But on that cold pre-Yuletide afternoon, when Tony Pulis shuffled out to tell the assembled reporters his star defender had suffered an ruptured achilles, it not only put a stake in the club’s hopes of staying up but altered the up-and-up trajectory of Iorfa’s Wednesday career.

Closing in on two years on, his Wednesday story is rich. A further injury followed the season after, this time a freak hip issue, tearing out the bulk of the last campaign. Having battled his way back in, he missed that season’s run-in with a niggly injury having come off second best in a training ground tackle. Stop-start? It’s been mainly stop.

Iorfa has spoken candidly about the ‘dark places’ he went to during his injury struggles.

And now fit after a full pre-season, he has a battle on to scale the heights he has trod previously.

Anyone to have spent any time speaking to him wouldn’t bet against it. There’s a determination to Dominic Iorfa in the way he speaks and goes about things. If he can stay fit, there’s a player there that can tear League One to shreds.

On the very limited evidence of this season so far, that player isn’t quite there now, understandably so given the travails of the last couple of years. Dropped after taking much of the heat for a poor defensive opening day performance against Portsmouth, he'd admit that himself, you’d suspect.

And now there’s widespread talk of another player coming in to threaten his place. Mark McGuinness, a 21-year-old Cardiff City defender of decent stock, stands at six-foot-four and can play either in the centre of the back three or on the right.

If that is to be the end of Wednesday’s strengthening at the back – which it may well be – it pushes Michael Ihiekwe further towards the left-hand berth to be shared, perhaps, with Liam Palmer and Reece James.

Ihiekwe would certainly remain a big part of the right-side debate too, joining McGuinness and Iorfa.

Should Iorfa play a part in Wednesday’s trip to Bolton Wanderers this weekend, expect him to puff his chest out and tackle the challenge head on.

What is for sure is that Dominic Iorfa has the mindset and all the attributes to battle past this challenging section of his career.