Tom Lees opens up on his Sheffield Wednesday future as contract nears end

And the 30-year-old centre-half, one of a raft of senior players approaching the end of their contract at the club, has spoken about his desire to extend his stay at Hillsborough after six years as an Owl.

In and out of the side and stripped of the captaincy under Garry Monk, the former Leeds defender has battled back from injury and suspension to set himself as one of the in-form players in Tony Pulis’ new-look Owls and has settled into a solid-looking partnership with Julian Börner at the heart of defence.

Pulis told The Star this morning that contract talks are likely to have to wait while the manager gets to know his squad and attempts to navigate a manic December fixture schedule.

And while Lees confirmed that nothing had yet been discussed over the possibility of a new deal, he’s keen to stay on.

“There’s been nothing,” he said. “At this club especially I’d say it is more unusual than other clubs in that players do go into the last year of their contract a lot more.

“We’ve seen that in the last few seasons, we’ve had double figures of players going into the last year of their contract, which for both sides is a bit unknown.”

Lees is one of a dozen first team players whose contract expires this summer, alongside Barry Bannan, Adam Reach, Keiren Westwood, Joost van Aken, Kadeem Harris, Moses Odubajo, Jordan Rhodes, Joey Pelupessy, Matt Penney, Liam Shaw and Osaze Urhoghide.

Bannan, Reach, van Aken and Rhodes have all expressed an interest in extending their stay and Lees said it is up to the individual to earn a new deal.

“I’m the same as everybody,” he said. “You have your own individual goals and then you have your goals as a team and they work hand-in-hand.

“If you take care of your own goals the team will benefit.

“For me it is about consistently playing and achieving those levels of performance week-in, week-out like I know I can do. If I do that, that benefits the team.

“In the future, that’ll all look after itself because hopefully I’ll have been playing well and playing regularly.”

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