Sheffield Wednesday midfielder back in contention for Brighton FA Cup clash after head injury and an update on Liam Palmer

The Australian international hasn’t featured since he came off in the Owls’ 3-2 defeat at Stoke on Boxing Day.

But manager Garry Monk reported he was likely to play in this weekend’s cup match, with widespread changes expected.

“Massimo should be back in contention for the cup game,” he said.

“It wasn’t concussion at all, he just felt a little bit groggy.

“He’s been training the last couple of days and clearly we’ve left him out of these last two games as a precaution, he should be back in contention for the FA Cup game.”

The south coast match will likely come too early for full-back Liam Palmer, who Monk reported has made an encouraging start to his recovery from an ankle injury sustained in a controversial Junior Hoilett tackle in the defeat against Cardiff.

Early signs suggest Palmer hasn’t sustained any long-term damage to the ankle and he could be back in contention as early as next week

Monk said: “He wasn’t ready for this game, it was too swollen. The scan is good and we were lucky that his ligaments weren’t torn or broken or anything like that.

“That’s the good news but obviously he has some damage to his ankle.

“I’ve been told he’s a quick healer, whether he’s ready for the FA Cup game or the following week we’ll see.

“I don’t really know. His ankle is still swollen but the scan came back more positive than we thought it was going to be, it’ll be dependent on how quickly the swelling goes down and how his movement is after that.”

Fernando Forestieri won’t feature due to an ongoing knee injury but it is hoped he will be back training in the next week or so.

Monk said earlier in the week that Keiren Westwood’s battle with a shoulder injury is to be ‘determined by him’.