'Attack-minded' Lincoln City hit with major injury blow ahead of Sheffield Wednesday clash

The Imps are sat 15th in the League One table having been beaten in the playoffs last season and, like Wednesday, will have designs on securing a top six spot this time out.

But their latest challenge has been rocked by a pair of injuries to key men.

Captain Liam Bridcutt won’t make the trip to South Yorkshire because of a knee problem, while Appleton delivered the news that key defender Joe Walsh will sit the clash out because of a quad injury.

“He had a scan last night, and we’ll probably get the results this morning,” Appleton said.

“It looks like what I first feared after the game. It’s a quad strain of some sort; it just depends how bad.

“It’s one of them, is it a grade one or a grade two [strain]? It’ll be somewhere between two weeks, which is what we want, or a six-week situation, which is what we don’t want after his previous spells out.”

On the match itself, Appleton afforded respect to Wednesday’s recent performances.

“We need to focus on being hard to beat, but also make sure we’re still attack-minded,” said Appleton. “If teams are going to struggle to beat us it’s because of our goals scored.

“Sheffield Wednesday' s performances have been better than what the results suggest. We know we’ll get chances tomorrow; we just need to stay in the game and be resolute.”