Sheffield Wednesday are seemingly unlikely to be able to turn to Ricardo Santos to solve their defensive problems for this weekend’s upcoming trip to Doncaster Rovers.

Di’Shon Bernard hobbled off with a knee injury after attempting to block a shot in the first-half of Tuesday night’s 2-0 defeat to Notts County. After 19 months out, the centre-back was making his third successive league start but was forced off in the opening stages. Speaking after the loss at County, Pedersen confirmed it was not the same knee sidelined Bernard for such a long time and spoke encouragingly about his situation.

Bernard’s replacement, Gabriel Otegbayo, had a night to forget after giving away a penalty which allowed Notts to take the lead. Otegbayo was later subbed off himself.

Santos, a summer signing from Swansea City, has missed the last three league outings with a groin issue and, if fit, would be a natural replacement for Bernard for the right-sided centre-back spot should he not be available.

But when asked about Santos, Pedersen told The Star: “He's closer, but he's not on the training pitches.”

Ernie Weaver would be another candidate to come in although he has been linked with a loan move to the National League.

Speaking about the defeat to County, Pedersen was frustrated they did not do the ‘basics’ well enough and did not win enough duels.

He said: “They (Notts County) came with a lot of physical power and it was difficult for us to compete with this power today. We had problem in the duels and then on the ball we had too many easy losses. We were not strong enough on the ball today. We all know it's not good enough tonight. To win football games in League One again, the basic has to be top. Now we have three days to the next game, now we have to recover, and then we have to learn a lot, and we have to learn quick.”