Sheffield Wednesday players to undergo testing in attempt to get to the bottom of long-standing injury woes

A handful of hugely important players have returned from spells out in recent weeks after what Wednesday boss Darren Moore described as the worst injury crisis he’d seen in 30 years in the professional game.

He is the latest in a long line of Wednesday managers to question the reasons behind a slew of soft tissue problems and together with new medical chief Rob Lee will oversee a period of testing of players bodies in order to get a better idea of what they’re facing.

“It’s been a major concern for us,” Moore admitted in conversation with The Star. “Over the course of the season there have been far too many injuries, far too many soft tissue injuries.

“We’ve looked into it, we’ve had a detailed report on these injuries and when we get a break in play every single one of the squad members will go for iso-kinetic testing on their bodies. That will flag up any weakness areas in the players.

“Once those are flagged up, we can start addressing it and forming our strength and conditioning around it. There may be specific areas that we need to detail more and get further strength work in.”

The investigation has begun on what Moore admits is a frustrating thing to have to deal with.

“At the moment we’ve had a detailed report, we’ve had a close look at the injuries,” he said.

“If we continue in the same vein that we were, those injuries will still mount up and we’ll never get a fully fit squad to compete at the level where we want to compete and get results. We’ve not had that really.

“It’s about doing everything we possibly can to keep these players on the pitch.

“It is a contact sport and injuries do happen even with all the best will and power in the world, but what we are going to try to do is address those areas as best we can.

“We’ve had that report, the stats and the readings don’t read well, but it’s about what we do now. We’ll get that testing done.”