‘Better than we thought’ – Steve Bruce gives injury update on Sheffield Wednesday striker Lucas Joao

Joao, who has been sidelined since the Owls’ win against Swansea City on 23 February with a knee injury, recently flew back to his native Portugal to undergo further examination.

Speaking to the Star ahead of tomorrow’s Championship clash with Blackburn Rovers, Bruce said: “Well it’s something that we are going to have to manage, his knee.

“t’s not great but it's better news than what I thought it was going to be last week so the specialist has said to us to leave off it for a little while and see if it settles down.

“He’s had an injection into so let’s see if that does the trick.”

The centre-forward is Wednesday’s joint top scorer this season along with in-form Steven Fletcher and is one of a number of injury-hit forwards in the Owls squad. 

But despite fears that Joao could miss the rest of the campaign and would be unable to play a part in Bruce’s plans for a late play-off push, the Owls chief was optimistic about a potential return.

“It’s a little bit better news than we thought it was a week ago where we thought he might need an operation and we thought he might be out for the rest of the season,” he said.

“So it’s a little bit of good news.”