For a fit and firing Darren Moore the Sheffield Wednesday rebuild isn’t just on the field of play

The appointment of Moore by Dejphon Chansiri was widely greeted with optimism by the Wednesday fanbase, with many believing that it was a positive appointment regardless of which league they ended up in.

Of course the new boss was hoping to keep them in the Championship, but they ultimately didn’t have enough in the locker to undo the damage that was done earlier in the campaign.

His situation wasn’t helped by the fact that he was forced to miss numerous training sessions and several games after he tested positive for COVID-19, and was then bit by a further blow as he developed pneumonia and blood clots on his lungs in the aftermath of it.

He’s back now, and raring to go, but the former defender admits that he was shocked by how hard the virus hit him.

Speaking to the club’s official website, he spoke of how eager he was to get to work now, saying, “I feel really good in myself… I feel back to what I think I should be feeling. I’m back in ready to do some work, so a personal thank you to all the fans that showed their support at a time when I needed it. I’m glad to be back and getting on with the work.

“I felt like I kept myself pretty fit, I’d do exercises to keep ticking over. But when you go 14/15 months, when it hits you it surprises you. It surprised me how rapidly it got hold of me, and what it did at the time. It was quite bizarre that, with the testing protocol we had, I was one of the only ones that test positive. I was negative on the Monday and then positive on the Thursday. I just never felt great after that.

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“I’m delighted to be back working at the football club day-to-day, and for me now it’s about looking forward to the new campaign. The work starts now in terms of it, and is ongoing through the summer.”

And that work will consist of many different aspects.

While player recruitment - on the back of a lengthy list of released players being confirmed – features at the top of his list of priorities, Moore says there also needs to be a focus on re-establishing a connection with the supporters.

He went on to say, “We’re very hopeful of getting things in place where we’re engaging us as a football club back into the community, and the community back into the football club.

“To build those close relationships is really important… As a manager and as players in the city of Sheffield we have to connect back with the supporters - and we’re aiming to do just that.”

Moore has promised new faces ahead of a return to the training ground in ‘a little over six weeks’, and he will be working around the clock alongside Jamie Smith and Paul Williams to try and build a side capable of bouncing back into the Championship at the first time of asking.

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