Sheffield Wednesday won’t rush striker decision as Owls boss plays down fitness concerns

The 33-year-old forward is currently a free agent after leaving Nottingham Forest at the end of last season, and will be hoping that he can show to the Owls why he’s deserving of a deal at S6 for at least the 2023/24 campaign.

Wednesday do have space in their 25-man squad to name another player to help in their push for points, but there’s no immediate rush to fill their final spot as they consider whether to offer Taylor a deal.

Having not played a senior club game since May 2022 there have been some concerns over whether he’d be ready to hit the ground running if he did sign, but after his brace against Barbados for Montserrat this month Xisco says that it’s more about whether he can offer them something different.

Speaking to the media, the Owls boss said, “He is fit, because he played for his national team in the last weeks, and now we’ll see - I need to know sometimes about the personality, about the levels that he can give in relation to our players…

“If he needs a week then we’ll give him a week, if he needs 10 days then 10 days, if it’s two days then two days… We need to be thinking about giving one step more for the team, and I’m not going to say exactly how much time - maybe tomorrow we could sign him, maybe he needs longer, I don’t know.”

Taylor has played 93 games in the Championship over his career, scoring 23 goals at this level.