Sheffield Wednesday star man 'smiling again' as he makes progress with injury
Latest from the treatment room...
Louie Barry is ‘smiling’ again as he makes progress on his return from injury.
The marquee summer signing was in fine form, following up his two goals and two assists against Bromley with another strike at Wycombe Wanderers at the start of this month before being forced off moments later with an ankle problem. The winger went over on his ankle on a strip of astroturf next to the pitch as he tried to run down the line.
The 23-year-old had to be helped around the pitch by two medical staff and left the ground on crutches and wearing a protective boot. It was later confirmed that he would be out for three months with ligament damage. “If there was no artificial turf there, then I'm sure it would not have happened,” Owls boss Henrik Pedersen told The Star at the time.
Barry’s absence has left Wednesday short of wide left options. They could really have used his craft in the goalless home draws against Wigan Athletic and Stockport County. Callum Slattery and Davis Keillor-Dunn have been used on the left wing in recent weeks but without success.
Providing an update on Barry, Pedersen told The Star: “He is going much better now. He has a smile on his face again and is starting to feel that he's going forward. But of course we need to have patience. It will take more weeks before he can come back again.”
The club recently published a picture of him on a bike with a smile on his face but Pedersen said it was ‘too soon’ to say whether Barry was ahead of schedule. With the next two league matches postponed because of international call-ups, it at least means Barry will not miss as many games as first feared.
Barry, who was man of the match in the 7-2 win against Bromley, had targeted trying to provide more assists before his injury, saying: “One thing that I want to improve myself this season is getting my assists up. It is something that I've lacked in my career. I've got my goals in my career, but only got about eight or nine assists in my whole career, which is something I really want to improve on, so that means being a little bit less selfish as well, which you have to work on when you want to score so many goals.”