Sheffield Wednesday boss reveals Mallik Wilks hopes as he lays down gauntlet to 'quality' attacker

Wilks has had a tumultuous time of things since moving to Hillsborough from Hull City, with injury curtailing a lot of his progress in a Wednesday shirt after spending months on the sidelines.

The 25-year-old made a return to the side this month, though, going on to find the back of the net against Cardiff City in the FA Cup, and his manager is eager to see him put his hand up for the rest of the 2023/24 campaign - challenging him to make sure he's available going forward.

“It’s good, hopefully he will be fit,” Röhl said of the attacker. “The last time I spoke about his performance - in Birmingham - he got injured. Now it’s about being ready. He has to do everything to be in shape, then he can help us. You can see he has quality, he has good finishing, he can keep the ball and he’s good one against one, but it’s about being fit.

“We need fit guys, we need performances. You need to be able to run a lot, sprint a lot, in my game. When he’s doing this then I’m happy as a manager.”

Wilks has eight goals and assists for Wednesday in his 32 games, and after getting just 12 starts from three different managers at Hillsborough he’ll be eager to play his part in the second half of the campaign as the Owls push for Championship safety.