Surgery rules out midfielder long-term – including Sheffield Wednesday’s Oxford United trip

The 20-year-old Leeds United loanee has played 28 games for Oxford in League One this season as they battle against the drop, and was certainly going to be one of the players that Darren Moore and his technical team will have been keeping tabs on ahead of their meeting.

But now it’s been confirmed that he underwent surgery on his hand this week, with his manager, Liam Manning, explaining that he’ll be out for the ‘forseeable future’ – which will include the Owls’ trip to the Kassam Stadium.

Manning told the club’s official website, “It’s unfortunate but unavoidable. The nature of the injury just means we can’t risk him playing right now. He wanted to play on but we can’t delay it or it could lead to long-term issues and that is too great a risk so he is going to have to sit the matches out for the foreseeable future.

"Lewis is gutted but he is a very talented player and has a very bright future ahead of him; Oxford fans have seen that this season and like us will be wishing him a speedy recovery."

Wednesday have three more games before that encounter though, with matches against Forest Green Rovers (A), Cheltenham Town (A) and Lincoln City (H) all on the horizon before the head through to Oxfordshire on April 7^th.