Sheffield Wednesday squad latest for Bradford City visit
SWFC host Bradford City on Thursday night...
Two Owls players will continue to be assessed ahead of Thursday night’s game against Bradford City.
Sheffield Wednesday started the new season with a 2-1 away win at Leyton Orient last Saturday and now they are preparing for their first home league match in front of more than 31,000 fans and the Sky Sports TV cameras.
Having recorded a win at Hillsborough against Bolton in the Carabao Cup, Henrik Pedersen’s men are two from two so far, as are Bradford, who beat Rochdale 2-0 in the cup before overcoming Peterborough United by the same scoreline at the weekend.
As well as Yan Valery, Ricardo Santos and Billy Mitchell were absent from the matchday squad at Brisbane Road. Santos, a summer signing from Swansea City, has not played any minutes yet but was on the bench against Bolton, while former Millwall midfielder Mitchell picked up an injury against Oldham at the end of pre-season.
Santos would bring experience to a currently young centre-half pairing of Gabriel Otegbayo and Sil Swinkels, as would Mitchell’s know-how in central midfield.
“Both of them are training well so we will see what happens with them in the next couple of days,” Pedersen said after the victory at Orient.“We have few injuries (at the moment) and this is what we want. There’s a good culture and everyone is happy and pleased to win today but everyone is so hungry for much, much more.”
With the Bradford game brought forward two days from Saturday to Thursday because of TV, it means players carrying knocks will have less time to prove their fitness. A pre-match press conference is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon where updates on others such as Valery and Onyango could emerge.
Pedersen told The Star: “You want to have all your players to perform on the highest possible level, and to bring them to the highest possible level, they need to be totally fit from the body side, from the mental side.”