Sheffield Wednesday: Rotherham United injection rumour quashed as clarity is delivered on Michael Smith injury comeback

The 30-year-old striker has had a tricky first few months at Wednesday having made the move from the New York Stadium on a free transfer in the summer.

He played 19 minutes in the season opener against Portsmouth last month but has been in and out of the physio’s room since as he seeks to shake off a minor injury he picked up late last season.

A recently released behind-the-scenes BBC documentary series revealed that Smith was undertaking injections to get him through a toe issue in the final weeks of the Millers’ promotion campaign, sparking rumours among the Owls fanbase that the injury had carried over.

But Owls boss Darren Moore has made clear to The Star that his continued recovery has nothing to do with any toe issue he may have suffered previously and rather it is a niggly thigh issue he has carried throughout the summer.

“He picked it up at the back end of last season and didn't think anything of it,” Moore explained when pressed on Smith’s comeback.

“It was in his thigh, just sat in the belly of his thigh. It was a little pocket of fluid. When he joined we thought over the course of the summer a rest would do it but it never moved.

MORE: Three injury concerns, one worry eased as Owls breeze to Carabao Cup win

“He could have played on with but it was holding him back a bit so we took him out of it to get him right. He's at the final part with it now.

“Depending on how he feels and what symptoms he has from it we'll see how the games come and when he might be involved.”

Moore reported that Smith was due ‘back on the grass’ in training earlier this month.

The Wallsend-born target man has been working hard with Rob Lee and the club’s sports science department with the hope of navigating a full recovery that will allow him to rejoin Wednesday’s play-off push sooner rather than later.

MORE: Crystal clear challenge laid down as Sheffield Wednesday’s forgotten man claws his mojo back

When exactly that will be remains to be seen – it’s not Moore’s style to put a specific timescale on these things and patience is seen as a virtue when it comes to injury comebacks – but there’s huge optimism that Smith is at the very final straight of his recovery.

“He'll be back in training with us on Thursday,” Moore continued. “He's completed his time with the sports science and will be back with us. What we need him to do now is to start completing volume with the boys.

“When he's back in training he’ll start reacting to things he can't control. If we feel happy with that then we'll be happy to go forward with it.

“He's been on the grass, but now he'll be back in with the group. The pleasing thing with that is that you can't tie him into movements when there's a ball. Those are the things that we need. He'll get some work done in the next 48 hours and we'll see where he's at.”