Sheffield Wednesday’s Barry Bannan has been given a bit of extra time off after a long season for the club.

The Owls skipper played more games (51) and more minutes (4,441) than any other player at the club in 2021/22, and finished the campaign battling through the pain barrier after picking up a knock ahead of the play-offs.

Now, after getting married over the weekend, ‘Baz’ was allowed a bit of extra time away from Middlewood Road, however it’s likely that he’ll be following a specific programme while he’s away in order to make sure that he’s where he needs to be at fitness-wise on his return.

Several Wednesday players were back in on Monday as they started to filter back in for testing, however it was not a case of the entire squad being back in at once, and it’s likely that the real work will get underway in a few days’ time when testing has been completed.

Bannan, who has missed just eight league games in the last four seasons, reiterated his desire to help the Owls to promotion following the defeat to Sunderland, and he’ll be back with his teammates soon enough as preparations for 2022/23 get underway.

It is unknown at this point in time exactly which players have reported back for the Owls as preseason gets underway, however the likes of new signing, Ben Heneghan, as well as Dominic Iorfa, Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, Jack Hunt, Marvin Johnson, Liam Palmer, George Byers, Dennis Adeniran and Alex Hunt have all been spotted so far.

So far the players have had staggered returns to Middlewood Road.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Wednesday as they look to bring in new faces at the club, and while Heneghan and goalkeeper, David Stockdale, are the only ones to have been confirmed so far, there is plenty of work going on behind the scenes.

The Star reported on Monday that they had upped talks to sign Cardiff City man, Will Vaulks, and if a deal is to get done then they’ll be looking to wrap things up as quickly as possible so that he can get through the door and get to work in S6.

MORE: The 18 players contracted for 2022/23 as Owls return to Middlewood Road