Sheffield Wednesday boss Garry Monk clarifies Steven Fletcher situation and makes Kieran Lee announcement

Sheffield Wednesday manager Garry Monk has attempted to clarify the confusion surrounding Steven Fletcher’s short-term future at the club and offered an update on the situations surrounding the club’s soon-to-be out-of-contract players.
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Speaking ahead of the Owls’ restart clash with Nottingham Forest on Saturday, Monk confirmed that Kieran Lee had agreed to extend his contract to the end of July and that every first-team player approaching the end of their deal has now been offered an extension to see them through to the end of the season.

Speculation around top scorer Fletcher – who is among the players whose deal runs out at the end of the month – has been rife since he was not pictured at the club’s training match at Hillsborough last week.

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The confusion increased yesterday when Owls midfielder Adam Reach told The Star that he believed Fletcher was fit. But Monk has clarified that the target man is back in training and looks set to take the field on Saturday.

Steven Fletcher trains at Wednesday's Middlewood Road training ground. (via @swfc | Steve Ellis)Steven Fletcher trains at Wednesday's Middlewood Road training ground. (via @swfc | Steve Ellis)
Steven Fletcher trains at Wednesday's Middlewood Road training ground. (via @swfc | Steve Ellis)

“With Fletch, he picked up an injury last week so he didn’t train, he picked up a slight niggle,” Monk told the local media via video call. “But he’s back in training this week and has trained all week.

“In terms of that side of it, every player in the training group that is out of contract has been asked to extend beyond this month and into next month to complete these games, that’s the short-term view right now. They’ve all been asked.”

Asked whether he was confident that the likes of Fletcher and Morgan Fox would extend to the end of the season, Monk said: “We have until the end of the month to finalise that.

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“I hope so. We need them and we need everyone in this period right now. Beyond that there are discussions ongoing and I’m hopeful that things will get done.

“There discussions and opinions on that side of it on behalf of myself and the player themselves.

“We have the first two games that are within this period. Hopefully they can all agree and then we can talk about the bigger picture as well.”

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