Sheffield Wednesday have been handed a huge injury boost ahead of their meeting with Leeds United tomorrow.
Sheffield Wednesday will be desperate to cause an upset tomorrow evening after winning five of their last six games in the Championship.
The Owls are now level on points with both Huddersfield Town and Stoke City, while they only sit two points from moving all the way up to 16th place.
Danny Rohl‘s side have a huge task on their hands though as they face Leeds United, who are the second most in-form team in the second tier right now – just ahead of Sheffield Wednesday.
The Owls’ form has meant that they have gone with a mostly unchanged starting line-up in recent weeks, with the likes of Ike Ugbo, Ian Poveda and Barry Bannan all playing a vital role in their success.
However, fans were given a fright at half-time against Plymouth, when the latter was substituted at half-time after a collision in the first half left him on the ground holding his face.
Rohl wasn’t particularly worried about the midfielder at the time though and had told The Star: “”He has some pain in his head, but I spoke to him after the game and he said it was feeling better then.
“We’ll check it tomorrow, and hopefully he’s ok for Friday because that’d be helpful in the middle of the pitch. Having Barry Bannan on the pitch, we need him as the leader of the group, and yeah, I cross my fingers for him that he can play.”
Bannan had very little time to recover from his injury ahead of the Friday night kick-off, but The Star journalist Joe Crann has now posted on X: “Barry Bannan is fit and available for #SWFC tomorrow night.”
How important is Barry Bannan?
It will be a huge boost for Sheffield Wednesday, who have seen Bannan as a vital cog under Danny Rohl’s transformation, with the veteran starting 32 games in the Championship this term.
Bannan hasn’t racked up as many goal contributions as previous seasons, but has been so reliable at doing every other job in the middle of the pitch.
The 34-year-old has made the third-most tackles in the squad (44), blocked the most crosses (7) and the second-most passes (26), as well as completing the most key passes (55).
Against one of the best teams in the Championship, Bannan’s absence would have been extremely costly for the Owls, especially given the lack of depth they have in midfield. We could well have seen Liam Palmer pushed further up again, though that is a position he has actually really impressed in as of late.