Sheffield Wednesday's Tom Lees set to miss crucial Championship clash

On a night when third placed Huddersfield Town also host promotion hopefuls, Reading, victory for the Owls against Brentford would be enough to leapfrog Leeds and one of the two teams who meet at the John Smith’s Stadium.

Lees has missed the last four games with a knee problem and Carlos Carvalhal, speaking at his pre-match press briefing this lunchtime, was giving no indication as to when the former Leeds United defender may return.

”I must look to the players that are available,” said the Portuguese when asked if Lees’ continued absence was a concern.

“I must try to find solutions and not try to create problems. That is my job.”

Better news for Carvalhal is the possible return of Morgan Fox after the left back missed the weekend win at Nottingham Forest with an ankle injury. Gary Hooper also made a scoring return for the Under-23s this afternoon in a 2-1 defeat to Crewe Alexandra.

On the challenge of facing Brentford, Carvalhal added: “We respect them a lot. They have conceded 10 goals in the last three matches but have scored seven.

“Brentford are all the time a threat. They have scored three goals against Aston Villa and Brighton and scored two goals against Reading in their last game. They are a team who are scoring goals very easy.

“We must be careful. We must play with our heads and a big heart.

“We know it will be a difficult game but we know exactly what we must do and hopefully we can express this on the pitch. We will fight for the three points.”