Sheffield Wednesday’s Jack Hunt and Michael Smith latest - Ben Heneghan's absence explained

The Owls go up against Rochdale on Tuesday night in their second round Carabao Cup clash, and Moore is expected to make numerous changes to his side following their impressive 2-0 win over Bolton Wanderers over the weekend.

But while several players who missed out on the side at Bolton will be named in the starting XI at Hillsborough, it may well come too soon for Hunt and Smith, both of whom have been absent from Wednesday’s squad in recent games – the former has missed the last two League One matches, while the latter hasn’t played since the opening day of the season.

When asked about the duo, Moore said on Hunt, "He has been ill. He has had antibiotics. His levels have been depleted with the throat infection…We have to build him back up. We will assess him on Monday.

On Smith, he went on to add, "He probably won't feature against Rochdale. I would rather give him some volume next week.”

Elsewhere, Moore explained the decision to leave out Ben Heneghan against Bolton, confirming that it was not down to any sort of injury problems.

He said, “We made a decision based on the type of game. Ben has played most minutes this season. He has been a stalwart… I thought it was the right decision. When you make a decision and it comes off, you are pleased with it. Obviously, Ben has got an important part to play for us this season.”

Other than Hunt and Smith, Wednesday have practically a clean bill of health going into their upcoming fixtures, and Moore will be pleased that he has such a big pool of players to select from when it comes to Tuesday night’s game at S6.

Wednesday face the Dale tomorrow evening at 7.30 pm as they look to try and book their place in the next round of the competition and potentially set themselves up with a tie against a big-name club from the Premier League.

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