Sheffield Wednesday defender Chey Dunkley on his battle for minutes in defence

The no-nonsense centre-half, who signed from Wigan Athletic last summer and saw his early months with the club ravaged by injury, is back in the side playing at the heart of a back three.

A vocal leader in the side, he admitted he has been left frustrated at being in and out of the side at times, though injuries to the likes of Sam Hutchinson and Lewis Gibson has delivered something of a clear run at nailing down a place in the side.

Asked whether he had been prepared for a selection battle, he said: “I did a lot of work in the off-season. I’ve been ready, I’ve come on when people have been injured.

“I’ve started games and felt like I’ve done well and I’ve been dropped. Listen, that’s football. I have to make sure I control what I can control for when I’ve been selected to be on the pitch.

“Have I been disappointed? Of course. Would I like to play every single game in the season? Of course.

“But I don’t make the decisions, it’s the manager. Managers make decisions an I have to be ready. I can’t say fairer than that.

“I’ll prepare correctly and when called upon I’ll continue to do my job like I have been doing.”

Speaking last week, Dunkley spoke of his pride at representing Sheffield Wednesday and the need to wear that pride on their sleeves this season.

He said: “We’re representing a massive club, so that should give us confidence going in. Pressure does come playing for this club and we should embrace that.

“We have to be going in respecting our opponents as well. Nobody is going to give it to us. We know that whoever is playing against Sheffield Wednesday is going to raise it 10 or 20 per cent. We know that.

“We should have the confidence to go out and beat teams, especially at Hillsborough.

“It’s a marathon. We need to build and keep building from the ethos that the manager is putting to us.

“We’ve definitely got the personnel to achieve it [promotion]. I believe we can, but we’ll see. We’ll take it game by game. It’s not a sprint.”