Defender will be handed first team chance next season as Darren Moore confirms return to Sheffield Wednesday

Youngster Ciaran Brennan has undergone surgery on a dislocated shoulder that brought his season-long loan stint at League Two Swindon Town to an end.

And though that has been a source of disappointment for all involved, Moore said it can be the start of a new career trajectory for the 22-year-old, who will be given the chance to prove himself as a potential first team player come the summer.

The Republic of Ireland youth cap has played 18 times for the Owls and made 21 appearances for the Wiltshire club, experience that will have elevated his ability to claim a place in next season’s plans.

“That’s why we sent him there,” Moore said. “It’s about the game time that he has had.

“You can have all the training you want but you have to have the opportunity to channel that training into games. It’s about when it comes to decision making and the repetition of playing games most weeks. When you’re playing, your game improves 20 or 30 per cent.

“You become stronger, you become more robust, you become more detailed in your work and your decisions get better. Your experiences of different environments and arenas is better, you can handle different opponents, you get better as a central defender how to use your body, your passing on the ball, the information you’re giving to the boys.

“All those things roll into a professional footballer’s psyche and you have to develop that as an individual.

“Ciaran Brennan has now had that over a large number of games.”

Brennan’s time away has been likened to that of Cameron Dawson at Exeter City last season in that it can prove to be a defining point in his career.

“Swindon Town, at the level they are at, is a big club,” Moore continued. “He’s been expected to go in and do things and he’s been a big part of things.

“He’s done really well, we’re sad his time there has been cut short by a couple of months. He’ll get his rehabilitation done and be ready for pre-season.”

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