Sheffield Wednesday youngster Ernie Weaver is yet to feature in senior football this season.

Ernie Weaver’s route back to full match consideration will continue behind the scenes at Sheffield Wednesday after a serious foot injury left him unable to play since October last year.

The talented centre-half, who became something of a cult hero in four back-to-back Championship starts at the outset of Wednesday’s brutal relegation campaign last time out, has featured in pre-season and has played in under-21 football as his route back to contention continues.

The 19-year-old was an unused substitute in the Owls’ Carabao Cup defeat to Wolves on Tuesday evening, as he was in their first round success against Bolton Wanderers. He is yet to make a matchday squad in the league. The management of a bright young player after such a long sit-out is one being carefully considered behind the scenes both in terms of match selection and in training intensity - and though the injury rehabilitation is complete, Owls boss Henrik Pedersen suggested efforts are being made to ensure he is primed and ready for a return to the big stage.

“He has had some under-21 games, he had had a good pre-season and he got a lot of game minutes,” Pedersen explained.

“We have to manage him because now he played under-21, then he cannot train as much because he has to play a lot of games (to get back to match sharpness) and he really needs game practice. And then we have to take care of how much he's training and the intensity in the training. I took him on the bench tonight.”

Fit-again senior man Ricardo Santos started alongside Swinkels in Tuesday’s outing with Gabriel Otegbayo preferred in a pre-planned switch on 66 minutes. Had the state of the game been different when Swinkels had to be taken off through injury, the suggestion was that Weaver could well have come on - but in chasing a way back into the game Pedersen sought to be more attack-minded in his management of the situation.

He said: “When we changed Ricardo, I took Gab in and then when had to take Sil out, Sil was not planned. I thought he should play 90 minutes but he had something with his hamstring. And then I choose to put Max in to change to a back three to be more offensive.”