What did Brighton snub mean for the futures of out-of-favour Sheffield Wednesday pair Moses Odubajo and David Bates?

The defensive pair, who arrived at the club in the summer, found themselves cut out of a much-changed matchday squad for the trip to Brighton on a day that Owls boss Garry Monk shuffled his pack in favour of players who – in his words – ‘deserved an opportunity’.

Neither were injured, Monk admitted. Odubajo last featured in an early-December horror outing at Derby and was ignored in favour of 19-year-old rookie Osaze Urhoghide, who grabbed his chance with both hands.

With the centre of defence re-shuffled for rest and Jordan Thorniley sold to Blackpool, many expected Bates to jump up the defensive pecking order and make his first matchday squad since September. He didn’t travel.

And Monk was blunt in his explanation for their absence.

“You have to pick a squad and there will always be players left out,” Monk said having praised the attitude of a team made up of six changes.

“They were the players left out.

“That’s my job. I’ve got to pick a team and that’s what it was today.”

Both came to Hillsborough with a burgeoning reputation – Odubajo, 26, as a flying Championship-class wing-back and centre-half Bates, 23, as an up-and-coming Scotland international – but the their latest omission is surely the biggest indication yet of the manager’s thoughts going forward.

Bates has been in and out of the club’s under-23s side but neither made the squad that limped to a 2-1 defeat to Crewe at Middlewood Road this afternoon.

The Owls boss admitted that Ash Baker is someone that could be moved on in the January transfer window. Such a move would surely come too soon for Odubajo and it is not known whether there is a recall clause for parent club Hamburg to tug on to end Bates’ spell in Sheffield – if there was, they would surely be tempted.

But neither were Monk signings and he seems unimpressed with their output thus far.

The reality now is that both Moses Odubajo and David Bates have their work cut out if they are to play a major part in the Owls’ promotion chase.