Steven Fletcher, Morgan Fox and Fernando Forestieri reject Sheffield Wednesday contracts

The Owls have also released Sam Hutchinson and Sam Winnall, and ended David Bates's loan from Hamburg as the Hillsborough summer clearout begins.

Paul Jones, Kieran Lee and Atdhe Nuhiu have signed short-term contract extensions which will keep them until the end of the season, but the Championship club have revealed Fletcher, Fox and Forestieri declined their offers.

Sides had until Tuesday to make a decision on the players whose deals were due to expire seven days later.

They are still able to negotiate over loan players, and are actively seeking to extend the loans of Alessio Da Cruz, Jacob Murphy, Connor Wickham and Josh Windass, but not Bates.

Manager Garry Monk has been consistent for months in saying he wanted to keep top-scorer Fletcher and full-back Fox, who have been two of his club's best players this season, and contract negotiations opened before the covid-19 pandemic. He was, though, critical of Forestieri's fitness last week, explaining that was why the forward was not in his 20-man squad for the 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest.

Fletcher started from the bench, and was substituted injured six minutes later. He may well, therefore, have played his last game for the club.

Wickham started - and scored - in his place, and the Owls will be particularly keen to extend his half-season loan from Crystal Palace now they have lost Fletcher and Forestieri. Centre-forward Nuhiu was another not involved at the weekend.

Fletcher, who joined the club after being released by Sunderland four years ago, has scored 13 goals in 30 appearances this season. The next highest scorer in the squad is Murphy, who is on loan from Newcastle United.

The Owls have won just two of the 15 Championship games Fletcher has been involved in this season, although in fairness that includes the 2-0 win at Leeds United, a contender for their best display, which Murphy and Nuhiu scored in.

Full-back Fox was linked with a move away in last summer's transfer window after falling out of favour at the start of the season, but has re-established himself as a key player under Monk. Like Fletcher, he was badly missed when he was injured in February.

Bates, by contrast only figured once this season, against Rotherham United in the League Cup.

Forestieri has had a very difficult season, and was banned for six games in September after being found guilty of using racist language towards Mansfield Town's Krystian Pearce in July 2018. His first start for Monk did not come until November 30, and his second was on February 8.

In total the Argentinian has made just eight Championship starts and nine substitute appearances in 2019-20, scoring twice. The centre-forward was even used at wing-back during the Owls' poor start to 2020.

Earlier this month, Wednesday triggered 12-month extensions in Osaze Urhoghide, Matt Penney and Joey Pelupessy’s contracts, but with so many players out of contract in the summer, after another under-performing campaign, and with financial issues apparent even before the coronavirus pandemic, there was always likely to be a clearout in Monk's first summer in the job.

The Owls are eight points clear of the relegation zone, but cannot consider themselves safe just yet.

In November they were charged with misconduct for the way they sold Hillsborough to chairman Dejphon Chansiri, then loaned it back to avoid breaching the Football League's profit and sustainability rules. That in itself is allowed, but the charge relates to how and why they did it.

Possible penalties if found guilty range from a fine to a points deduction of eight to 21 points.

The case, which Wednesday have always said they would vigorously contest, is being heard this week.Regardless of the outcome, the fact they had to resort to such measures to avoid posting losses in excess of £39m over three years shows the need to cut back the wage bill for next season, but the decisions by Fletcher, Fox and Forestieri means they will not be able to do it in quite the ways they wanted.

The Owls are at Bristol City on Sunday.

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