Lewis Wing’s surprise Sheffield Wednesday absence explained by Darren Moore

Wing, who is on loan from Middlesbrough, hasn’t missed out on a squad in any competition at Wednesday since joining in the summer, but wasn’t even on the bench against Plymouth as Moore opted to use Barry Bannan, Fisayo Dele-Bashiru and Massimo Luongo in his starting XI.

Some fans had wondered if his absence meant that the club had been handed another injury concern, however the manager has now revealed that the 26-year-old was left out for purely tactical reasons.

Speaking to the media after the impressive 4-2 win over the Pilgrims, Moore said, “Lewis Wing was just not in the selection… George (Byers) had come back into training, we had Dennis (Adeniran) on the bench, and I didn’t think that we needed three midfielders on the bench.

“We wanted to have one defender and three attackers on there, because I felt that we needed to go after them today – and we did that.”

It remains to be seen whether the Boro loanee will return to the squad for the visit to Oxford United next Saturday, however it will be difficult for him to force his way back into Moore’s plans after such a complete display at Hillsborough on Saturday afternoon.

Wing has so far played 24 games in Wednesday colours this season, 18 of which have been played in League One, and scored one goal for the club.

Big player ratings as 'tremendous' Mendez-Laing and others star for Owls