Plan in place as Sheffield Wednesday man faces more weeks out
Nathaniel Chalobah will be the subject of a behind-the-scenes programme at Middlewood Road designed to get him fit and ready to take on the hustle and bustle of a Championship season with Sheffield Wednesday.
The experienced midfielder has managed only one Wednesday appearance - in a Carabao Cup win over Grimsby Town on August 27 - since his free transfer signing following the end of his West Brom contract in the summer. Chalobah was a later addition to the Owls’ pre-season programme and has picked up a reoccurrence of injuries as he has sought to battle back into contention.
Instead of following a similar plan, Wednesday will instead take their time over careful a staging-up of Chalobah’s involvement in training and will look to step up his minutes in during the next international break which ends with a home clash with Cardiff City on November 23. The 29-year-old is back in individual training at the club’s training ground - Owls boss Danny Röhl has described the plan as a ‘mini pre-season’ for the former Chelsea midfield man.
“He needs time,” Röhl told The Star. “We have to give him time and now he needs a new pre-season. When he came to us in the summer, he missed some weeks in the pre-season and then he was injured, then a small injury and now a bigger injury. We are building him up on the grass and the goal for us now is for him to get minutes in the next international break. If it is earlier then it will be good, but in the next three weeks when we play every three days the intensity in training is not so high.
“He needs now some rhythm. He started on the grass, this is a good signal after four or five weeks just in the gym, it can be hard in the mind. This is the next big step and we will look from week to week. But now we will give him three or four weeks more so that we can really build up something.”
Wednesday’s injury landscape elsewhere is mixed heading into this weekend’s Hillsborough clash with Burnley. Röhl revealed to reporters in his pre-match press conference that Michael Ihiekwe was a doubt and that while the likes of Liam Palmer, Josh Windass and Olaf Kobacki are expected to be in contention, decisions will be made to ensure full recoveries are made as the club turn the corner into a manic run of fixtures.