Sheffield Wednesday receive selection boost after hitting key figure against Leeds United

The Owls skipper has been walking a suspension tightrope for a month now after picking up his ninth yellow card of the season in the win over Birmingham City last month, with one more triggering a ban for two matches had it been reached by game 37.

Wednesday may not have got the result that they wanted on Friday night as they were beaten 2-0 by Leeds United at Hillsborough, but one positive that came from the evening was that it passed by without Bannan being given a caution - leaving him free to see out the final nine games of the campaign.

One man who did get booked, however, was Wednesday manager, Danny Röhl, who was frustrated with some of the officiating, but he joked that he would rather it be him than his captain.

“It was an emotional thing,” Röhl said about his booking. “When you had the thing before half time, which was really disappointing, and then there was a duel where - for me - it was more an attack forward than a foul, but maybe it was a foul and I was emotional.

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“But I’ll take the yellow, it was more important that Barry Bannan didn’t get one today. It means now that he’s over the line now and he’s not in danger of being suspended for two games. That was a key point, so I’ll take the yellow card for him.”

Di'Shon Bernard was the only other Owls player that was close to a two-game ban, but he knew before last night's game that his concerns on that front were over.

Defeat to Leeds meant that Wednesday missed their chance to climb out of the bottom three, but they'll be hoping that teams elsewhere today can do them a favour as they eye another opportunity to do so next weekend.