Sheffield Wednesday caretaker boss Neil Thompson reveals Keiren Westwood injury, plus updates on Josh Windass and Chey Dunkley

A battered and bruised Sheffield Wednesday delivered their third home win in a row with a hard-fought win over fellow relegation battlers Derby County.
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The Owls won 1-0 in a nip-and-tuck struggle through Callum Paterson. But it wasn’t without it’s down points, with attacking threat Josh Windass hobbling off with a hamstring injury in the first half after number one Keiren Westwood sat out alongside December’s player of the month Chey Dunkley.

Owls caretaker boss Neil Thompson returned positive news on the sit-out pair, however, revealing that Westwood was out with a groin injury and Dunkley with him hamstring.

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“We don’t think they’re massively serious,” he said. “We’ll see how they are next week. We’ve got the cup game at Exeter and we’ll see how they go.

Keiren Westwood missed Sheffield Wednesday's 1-0 win over Derby with a groin injury.Keiren Westwood missed Sheffield Wednesday's 1-0 win over Derby with a groin injury.
Keiren Westwood missed Sheffield Wednesday's 1-0 win over Derby with a groin injury.

“It’s just games catching up with them. Neither of them have had many games last year, Chey didn’t play since February and then played five games in a really short period of time, so the game just came too quick.

“Keiren as well, he's not played a lot of football and has a lot of kicking to do and he felt his groin, at the end of the day you can’t take risks.

“We’ve got one or two niggles, certainly at centre-half there was an issue tonight and Liam Shaw has gone back there and done a great job.”

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Asked if Windass’ issue was him hamstring, Thompson said: “I think so yeah. We’ll assess him in next week.

“In terms of the intensity of games coming thick and fast, we’re not going to get that in the next three or four weeks, which is good. It gives players a chance to get back. Josh will be assessed like the other two.”

The win makes it two from two for the popular step-in coach.

“We weren’t at it first half,” he admitted. “We rode our luck a wee bit, we had to adjust the shape and that’s down to all the games we’ve had in this period.

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“But we adjusted it and got into it at half-time, we had a word with one or two and had a good reaction second half, we were positive and dug in.

“In this period these lads have given it everything they’ve got and that’s all you can ask of them.”

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