Could Massimo Luongo return to play a part in Sheffield Wednesday's do-or-die end to the season?

But repeated injuries have robbed Massimo Luongo of the ability to make much of an impact on the Owls’ horror season, which sees its penultimate match take place this weekend.

Nottingham Forest are the visitors to Hillsborough with part of the equation simple; they must better Derby’s result at Swansea or have relegation confirmed.

Wednesday have been boosted with the return of a handful of players from long-term injuries this week, with the likes of Chey Dunkley and Joost van Aken jumping back into full training at an opportune time given the season-ending Tom Lees’ injury sustained at Middlesbrough.

One player who could make an unexpected return is Luongo, though, who had earlier been ruled out of further appearances this season by Wednesday boss Darren Moore.

The Australian international has been pictured training having come through the worst of his knee injury and will be assessed ahead of the visit of Forest.

Speaking ahead of the Forest game, Wednesday’s stand-in boss Jamie Smith said on Luongo’s return: “Massimo has looked bright and sharp. He’s obviously delighted to be back out there and we’re delighted to have him back out training.

“He’s been out for a while and he’s got to take care and make sure he looks after his injury.”

Should Wednesday come through that game with a chance of survival, it could set up a straight shootout at Derby on the last day of the campaign.

It remains to be seen whether Luongo is fit enough to play a part the last two matches, though Smith far from ruled it out.

He said: “Firstly we have to wait and see how he’s doing today [Friday] in terms of how his injury is after yesterday. It’s difficult to say, he’s been out for so long, he’s back training and you need to see how his injury is going to respond. We’ll see how he is.

“It gives the other players a lift as well. It freshens things up in the training, it’s really good to see the lads who have been out for a long time back training.”

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