After a strong run of 23 games unbeaten in the league, Sheffield Wednesday found themselves on the back end of a 4-2 loss to Barnsley on Tuesday night and waiting to hear back on two key contributors.
The Owls saw their first league defeat since the 4th of October on Tuesday and are still waiting to hear the severity of the injuries to George Byers and Josh Windass.
Both men missed the defeat to Barnsley after suffering their respective injuries the week prior.
Byers was substituted just after the half-hour mark in Wednesday’s 1-0 to Portsmouth earlier in the month, while Windass hobbled off midway through the second half during the 0-0 draw to Bolton on the weekend.
It’s currently unknown how long both players will be sidelined, but with 18 goal contributors for striker Windass and six goals in 19 starts for midfielder Byers, the two men will be missed for the foreseeable future.
The Owls fell from their perch atop of League One Tuesday night, after suffering their defeat to Barnsley and Plymouth picking up a 2-0 away win to Accrington Stanley.
Sheffield Wednesday now find themselves two points back from the top of the table, however, do have two games in hand on the Pilgrims. As for the teams below them, Ipswich and Barnsley are chasing hard with six points separating the three teams.
Wednesday boss Darren Moore spoke after his team’s defeat and while he sounded confident on the matter, he’s still waiting to hear back from the specialists.
He said: “I’m just waiting for one or two more bits of information from the specialists looking at the level of their injuries – we’re being guided by them. Hopefully we’ll know more this week. Hopefully we can try and stay confident for them.
“Hopefully we get some good news on those two this week as well… I was worried with Reece James, I thought he was going to be weeks out, but he came through – so I’m going to hold my tongue. What we thought was severe was just heavy bruising.
“With Josh and George, fingers crossed the news we get later in the week will be positive.”
Writer’s View
Wednesday has looked like the best team in League One this season, but they mustn’t fall apart at the back end of the season.
While Moore remains optimistic about their return, the quicker Byers and Windass come back the better. Wednesday seemed to miss Windass up top last night against Barnsley, but just because their unbeaten run is over doesn’t mean they can’t continue that good form into the final stretch of the season.
