Sheffield Wednesday man out for 'some time' - Henrik Pedersen questions referee decision v Leicester City
Sheffield Wednesday put up a spirited scrap in their opening day defeat at Leicester City on Sunday - but left the King Power Stadium with availability concerns.
The Owls are operating with a threadbare squad laid bare at Leicester, with a substitutes bench littered with youngsters with little or no Championship experience. In the face of rabid off-field chaos and a barely functional pre-season campaign, Nathaniel Chalobah’s first half goal gave Wednesday a deserved lead over the title hopefuls, though a second half proved a bridge too far.
Goal hero Chalobah was one of two key players to be taken off with an injury and speaking to The Star post-match, Henrik Pedersen confirmed he expects him to be out for a considerable time. It serves as the latest setback in a Wednesday career so far decimated by injury. Yan Valery hobbled out of the second half in some discomfort.
To pile on the concerns over selection, skipper Barry Bannan was controversially sent off for a second bookable offence and will be suspended. Wednesday cannot appeal.
“Nate was not good and Yan I need to know more on,” Pedersen said. “I am hoping it was a big, big cramp, but let’s see tomorrow how things look. With those two out and Barry out, the squad is not going to be bigger.
“I cannot say exactly (on Chalobah), but it doesn’t look good, so I think he’ll be out for some time.”
Wednesday’s effort drew plaudits from pundits and Leicester boss Marti Cifuentes but just came up short as Belgian international Wout Faes headed the winner with just minutes to go. Faes’ fellow international substitution Harry Winks was offside in the build-up to Yannick Verstergaard’s equaliser and Bannan’s red card has been heavily debated.
“I think maybe there was an offside, but I only saw it very quickly,” Pedersen continued. “The others said it was offside. I don’t know. I have not yet seen the situation with Barry so I cannot say yet if the ref was good or not good.”
On the wider performance, the Danish boss expressed his pride at how his side performed.
He said: “I am sitting here with a proud feeling after that performance from the boys. These have been some tough, tough weeks with things we have spoken about. There have been a lot of things around them, but it is about making every day a top performance in training. We need to use these skills and we knew it would be difficult in phases.
“We kept the discipline, the motivation, to help each other. It was a fantastic picture on how you can do this with the boys.”