Lee Bullen has explained why he withdrew Kieran Lee after 65 minutes of Sheffield Wednesday’s 1-0 defeat at Millwall on Saturday.
Lee has started four consecutive Championship games for Wednesday, having last achieved the feat in October 2017.
And after being on the receiving end of a Jed Wallace tackle earlier in the game, which resulted in a red card for the Millwall midfielder, Lee’s substitution raised fresh concerns about his fitness.
But when asked by BBC Radio Sheffield whether the popular Owls player had suffered any ill-effects, Bullen said that his decision was purely tactical.
“No. Nothing at all. He’s fine,” replied the Sheffield Wednesday caretaker manager.
“I don’t think with the bodies we had available we could have gone any more offensive, to be honest, with Adam Reach at left-back, Hutch (Sam Hutchinson at right-back and Baz (Barry Bannan) and (Massimo) Luongo keeping the two wingers on, going with the two strikers, (Steven) Fletcher and (Jordan) Rhodes.
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“You think something is going to break for you but unfortunately it didn’t. We had opportunities but nothing clear-cut.”
Wednesday slipped to sixth in the standings after suffering their first defeat of the new season, and will be keen to bounce back when Luton visit Hillsborough on Tuesday night.
Bullen made two changes at the Den, and could look to freshen things up against the Hatters, with a trip to Preston to follow next Saturday.