Sheffield Wednesday's Lee Gregory return the first of many as attacking options boost promotion charge

The Owls crashed to a 3-1 defeat at relegation-threatened Lincoln City on Saturday in what was only their third reversal since the start of January.

But among the silver linings to the disappointing afternoon at Sincil Bank was the emergence off the bench of Gregory after 67 minutes along with midfielder Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, who himself had missed six matches with an ankle injury.

Gregory is Wednesday’s top scorer with eight League One goals and has been steadily eased back into action after suffering a setback to a toe injury suffered at Oxford United in January.

The double boost is one of several expected in the coming weeks as Moore’s men attempt to get towards the back end of a second major injury crisis this season.

“They had 20 minutes today and that was all they were really allowed to have,” Moore said. “They need volume in training and we have got a full week to give them that volume.

“The likes of them and Dom Iorfa will get real volume into them and I am grateful to have the week of training as that is what they need.”

Moore explained that Lewis Gibson had been left out of the side at Lincoln as a precaution after his recent comeback and that George Byers had been substituted on similar grounds.

On Gregory’s potential impact, Moore continued: “It’s really good to have him back. Greggers is back, but we’ve got Saido, Sylla, Flo. Then we get Josh Windass back, Mendez-Laing back, we get Mide Shodipo back in.

“These are all attacking options we’ll have back and in games like that [the defeat at Lincoln], they do bring a massive help because they do have a massive output those attacking players, as the whole team does.

“Nobody will doubt the energy and commitment those players have been showing over the last few weeks, but it just wasn’t showing when we needed that today.

“Credit to Lincoln who worked extremely hard, they didn’t have a midweek game and had a week to work.”