Postponement gives extra time to Sheffield Wednesday’s injured players

The Owls had been due at Highbury this evening but the weekend’s high winds caused structural damage to the Parkside Stand. It is a second postponement in a week after last Wednesday’s scheduled game against Accrington Stanley fell foul of a waterlogged pitch. That has now been rearranged for March 15.

Centre-back Lewis Gibson returned from injury in the 3-1 win at Doncaster Rovers on Saturday, coming off the bench to set up Saido Berahino’s goal, and Lee Gregory, Dominic Iorfa and Chey Dunkley are back in training, building up their fitness.

Whilst manager Darren Moore tries to nurse the rest of his squad through a demanding season with 15 more matches before April 30 – then, they hope, the play-offs – they are having to be sharpened up.

“The training when you’ve got this level of games is just about playing and recovering, very minimal work,” said Moore.

“(For the players coming back from injury) it’s extra training after everyone’s finished. We look at in-house games and Under-23 games.

“We bring some of the Under-23 players up so there’s more bodies to give them longer training sessions and they get an extensive hit.

“Everything is calling on the GPS, we know exactly what they’re doing and the levels they’re doing it to and they have to hit markers over a sustained period to take them into match mode.

“We’ve got data from what they were producing before and they need to get back to it. Once they’re able to get to those levels, then they need games.”