Injured Sheffield Wednesday man may not return until next year

Juan Delgado joined the Owls over the summer, coming in as Xisco's first signing of a busy few weeks that saw the club recruit enough players to build a new starting XI.

The 30-year-old became a regular under the Spaniard, starting practically every game of his spell in charge, however he's yet to feature under Danny Röhl after sustaining a hip injury that required surgery. His last game, coincidentally, was also the last for the man that signed him.

Wednesday's current boss said that he wasn't the man to give too many details on where the Chilean international is on his road to recovery, however he did suggest that he wouldn't be playing again this year given that there's only around eight weeks left until 2024 gets underway.

“I think it’s a little bit more long-term,” Röhl told The Star when asked if he'd be back again in 2023. “At the moment I can’t say anything about the restart, but it’s a long process in the next weeks and months.

“For the details I’m not the right man, that’s for the medical side, but I’ve had conversations with the doctor and physios about his situation. It’s about building up some things step by step, and not saying anything about coming back immediately. So it’s step by step until he’s back training on the pitch, then some time in the U21s, and then he’ll be ready again for the first team.

"But like I say, it’s a process, and we’ll cross our fingers that it’s not so long.”

Wednesday's only other injured player at this point in time is midfielder, Momo Diaby, while Josh Windass was back in training on Thursday after recovering from the knock that kept him out against Bristol City.

The Owls take on Millwall tomorrow afternoon at Hillsborough in Röhl's second home game in charge of the club, and he'll be hoping for a similar result to the one that he got when Rotherham United came to visit a couple of weekends ago.