Liam Cooper to be assessed as Sheffield Wednesday battle swollen absentee list
Sheffield Wednesday are battling a lengthy absentee list.
Standout Sheffield Wednesday performer Liam Cooper will be the subject of assessments to see how much football he can play in the next week - as the Owls juggle a growing absentee list.
Things looked to be improving in terms of numbers across the squad before a nightmare evening at Notts County saw three key men rendered unavailable for the South Yorkshire derby visit to Doncaster Rovers on Saturday. Callum Slattery will sit the match out having picked up his fifth caution of the campaign in the 2-0 loss at Meadow Lane, while Jamal Lowe was dismissed having lunged at Jacob Beadeau early in the second half.
Any seriousness of injury to Di’Shon Bernard is not confirmed and though he was seen to be moving reasonably well after the match, it seems unlikely he’ll be able to feature at Rovers.
That leaves holes to fill in a side that looked out on its feet for parts of the defeat. Among those was warrior figure Cooper, who stood out as their best player in spite of clear fatigue towards the end of the match. The veteran former Scotland man has been carefully managed through parts of the season in terms of his training commitments and on Tuesday evening led the Owls on headers won, clearances, blocks and accurate passes.
Pedersen spoke last week to admit some players would not be able to play entire back-to-back matches in a run of five games in just 15 days. The rampant nature of the weekend’s win over AFC Wimbledon allowed Wednesday to retract the likes of Cooper and Barry Bannan early in an effort to ease their workloads.
Asked whether considerations would need to be had over the involvement of Cooper this weekend, Pedersen suggested he would be assessed, saying: “We tried to manage him on Saturday after 60 minutes and tonight he needed to play through - and then we will see the reaction after 90 minutes.”
The assessment of Cooper - who has been described as a ‘warrior’ by his manager - comes alongside Bernard’s fresh issue and amid the absences of Ricardo Santos and Sil Swinkels. The Dutchman could be set for a return sooner rather than later.
Jordi Liongola has not yet been cleared for his recovery from a hamstring issue and youngster back-up Cole McGhee is injured. Max Lowe is recently returned and Sean Fusire, again absent from the squad at Meadow Lane, is yet to play a League One minute having had niggles earlier in the campaign.
Suspensions for both Slattery and Jamal Lowe come at a deeply inconvenient time. Louie Barry remains some time from his eagerly-awaited concern, while the recovery of George Brown continues. Goalkeeper Joe Lumley will miss out on the trip to Doncaster with a rib injury, with Ashley Maynard-Brewer having deputised to good effect.
On the frustration of Lowe’s red card and whether he had any issue with the decision, Pedersen said: “No... Of course, it's not what we need, a red card when you're 1-0 down and Jamal knows that.”