George Brown made his first senior Sheffield Wednesday appearance in 11 months on Tuesday.

Sheffield Wednesday youngster George Brown could be in-line to make the squad in Saturday’s League One clash with Plymouth Argyle having come through an important 45 minutes in midweek.

The Yorkshire-born forward was one of the young players to make an impression in last season’s squad crisis, scoring two Championship goals across seven outings before injury twice halted his involvement. He started in Tuesday’s EFL Trophy defeat to Accrington Stanley, coming off at half-time in a pre-planned substitution, and was among those to come away with credit for a battling display.

“It was a tough comeback for him against an experienced centre-half who's been round the block,” new Owls boss Dave Challinor said. “We played pretty direct into him. Connal (Trueman), probably under instruction really that if it was on, to play, but can we play over (to Brown)? Especially for the young lads early on and try and get them a feel (by playing shorter).

“So George had a right fight on his hands, but he's got through 45 minutes which is brilliant. Importantly he recovers now and you guys know better than me in terms of the hopes that the club have for him.

“He's been out for a long time and with every long-term injury you've got to tick off or jump over certain hurdles and that's the first one for him tonight.”

His last competitive appearance before that game came as far back as December 20, some 326 days prior. Though some figures are set to return in the coming games, Wednesday are not flush with options in several areas of the pitch and will have Mason Burstow and Ali Al-Hamadi absent for the visit of the Pilgrims. That would leave space for a player of Brown’s profile. The 20-year-old was named on the bench in Sunday’s FA Cup defeat at Oldham Athletic after Harry Gray pulled out in the warm-up.

“We'll just have to see,” Challinor said on any potential involvement for Brown this weekend. “He was obviously in and around it at the weekend. Hopefully he recovers and there's no ill effects and we'll see where we go.”