The stats that show it was unfair to paint Connor Wickham as Sheffield Wednesday's mid-season messiah

Brought back to the club where had enjoyed two temporary spells at as a youngster either side of the summer of 2013, expectations were understandably high. The abiding memories among most Wednesdayites were of a 21-year-old Wickham whose second love stint yielded eight goals in 11 games.

They were raised pre-match at Barnsley as Garry Monk named a gung-ho line-up that included Wickham leading the line in the absence of Steven Fletcher. This, it was felt, was the dawning of a new Sheffield Wednesday in 2019/20.

But along with the rest of his side, the crescendo fell flat. And its a tune he has struggled to muster since.

Monk has admitted that Crystal Palace-owned Wickham, still on the recovery trail from a long-term injury lay-off, has struggled for match sharpness. Leading into the coronavirus suspension looked powerful in moments, but largely leggy and off the pace.

The stats don’t make for especially pleasant reading. In 436 minutes he has mustered just one shot in target and only eight shots in total, with a limp xG rating of 0.07. He averages only 3.3 touches in the box per 90 minutes and has registered three shot assists.

With the football season expected to continue beyond June – believed to be the end-date of the loan contracts of Wickham, Alessio Da Cruz, Josh Windass, Jacob Murphy and David Bates – whether or not Wednesday choose to take any option to extend Wickham’s third stint and the financial commitments that come with that remain to be seen.

The forward himself will be keen to prove himself, however.

“(Staying on) depends on the situation at the time and what’s on the table,” he told The Star ahead of his debut at Barnsley in February.

“I still have a year left at Palace. I think the intention is to go back to Palace - the chairman has made that quite clear to me.

“As far as I’m concerned from Crystal Palace’s side I’m here to get development and what happens after that we’ll see.”