How Barry Bannan is going through the pain barrier to help turn Sheffield Wednesday's season around

The Scottish midfielder, who turned in a man of the match performance in their 3-3 draw with Birmingham on Saturday, has been struggling with a groin injury for several weeks and found himself on the bench in their defeat to Reading.

Owls boss Garry Monk admitted that decision was made sue to Bannan’s fitness and the former Crystal Palace man explained the extent of the injury.

And it is hoped an injection administered early last week will help him to continue turning out the sort of quality performances that have made him a fan favourite at Hillsborough.

Bannan said: “The last couple of games, I have not been great to be honest. I have been struggling with an injury.

“My groin, I had it two years ago and I just want to play games. It would be easy to just sit out. It's more a tendonitis thing.

“If it was a hamstring pull where you know you can't play, it's different. Because of what it is, and you can play. I have probably been playing at about 70-80%. I would probably need to be dragged off the pitch to not play.

“When the gaffer dropped me last week that was one of the reasons behind it. I probably needed that otherwise I probably would have kept on playing.

“I had an injection on Monday and I thought it didn't work because on Thursday I had to come off but today is the best I have felt.”

And Monk, who Bannan described as a ‘top, top manager’ following the draw at St Andrews, was full of praise for his battle-scarred playmaker.

Speaking after Saturday’s draw the Owls boss said: “He was fantastic today. I thought he was the best player on the pitch.

“He's another one that is playing through injury. He's not fully fit but that's not a bad player for not being fully fit. I thought he was great.”