Returning trio give beleaguered Sheffield Wednesday boss timely tonic

The Portuguese has seen his side beaten heavily in the Sheffield derby by United and then edged out at Birmingham City during the last seven days.

With the international break looming, the Owls badly need to return to winning ways against Leeds in front of the TV cameras.

Glenn Loovens and Sam Hutchinson, who have both been out through injury since the second week of the season, have come through a full week’s training along with Almen Abdi and the trio are in contention for Sunday’s encounter.

“Glenn, Sam and Almen have started training and are doing very well,” said the Portuguese. “They have trained all the days and are doing better and better.

“We will analyse them. Let’s see if one or another can recover more fast.”

Less pleasing for Carvalhal is the continued absence of Keiren Westwood through a rib injury, though the Wednesday chief was also at pains today to stress he has full faith in Joe Wildsmith.

“Keiren is still with some problems. It will be very difficult (for him to play). When you have a problem with the ribs, you can’t do anything. You must wait for the pain to disappear. It is a question of time.

“We are all the time analysing the pain. If the game was today, Keiren couldn’t play. Let’s see if he will recover for Sunday or not.”

The Portuguese chief has full faith in Wildsmith, saying: “I picked Joe to play at the age of 18. We have absolute confidence in him. He’s a fantastic goalkeeper.

“Like Keiren, he has a bright future. We don’t have any problems with goalkeepers. Cameron [Dawson] is very good and Jake [Kean] is training very well.”

George Boyd (shoulder) and Fernando Forestieri (knee) remain on the sidelines.