'Red flags' - Sheffield Wednesday's in-depth injury investigation and what happened next

Wednesday had a nightmare season on the injury front last time out, with periods of the season seeing them in double figures with regards to the amount of players sidelined due to various ailments.

At one point Wednesday were playing without enough centre defenders to fit the formation, and also had a spell where they were almost out of strikers.

The tide appears to have turned now, it would seem, with the Owls finishing the 2021/22 season strongly and with relatively few issues – and Moore will be hoping that the work that they’ve put in continues to pay off.

“I was really happy,” he told The Star. “The investigation brought up a lot of red flags, which we thought had to be the case.

“We’ve gone through a lot. The football pitch and the texture of it, we’ve brought different medical machines in here, extra staff, extra sessions, extra stretching and strengthening - loads of things we’ve done since that investigation.

“Though we’ve seen a benefit from the players testing now, we’ve seen it with their power and strength, we’re also looking at fatigue elements.”

Moore has brought yoga to Middlewood Road, made changes with regards to the food being eaten, and put other things into place to try and limit their problems, but he knows that he can’t wrap the players up in cotton wool.

An ‘incident’ at training had the Wednesday boss wincing last month, but he doesn’t want his players to lose the competitive streak that they show in both training and on matchday.

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He went on to say, “So I’ve been really happy with it, and all I can do is control what I can control in terms of giving them the maximum level of advantage.

“But what we can’t control is the fact that it’s a contact sport… The Wednesday players are committed - in training as well as in games.

“We had an incident three or four days ago where a player went in for a challenge, sent a player tumbling up in the air and into the post and I thought, ‘Oh my word, we’ve lost one here!’

“But he just got up, dusted himself down, and if you looked at the incident it looked far worse than what the players seemed it to be.

“But that’s the competitiveness, that happens on a day-to-day basis…. That part I can’t control.”

Wednesday got their 2022/23 campaign underway with an eventful 3-3 draw with Portsmouth over the weekend, and while both Callum Paterson and Dennis Adeniran missed out with minor niggles, they’re both expected to be back in the running for the upcoming clash with MK Dons.

Another one to watch on the injury front is two-goal hero, Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, after he was substituted against Pompey, however the player himself seemed to suggest that his departure was more precautionary than anything.

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