Two expected back but key man will miss for illness-plagued Sheffield Wednesday at Preston North End.
A trip to Preston North End provides Sheffield Wednesday with their last test of a manic 2024.
The Owls head across the Pennines on a remarkable run of form on the road, their last defeat outside Sheffield having come as far back as September – some 99 days before the Preston clash. The two sides played out a 1-1 draw at Hillsborough just three weeks ago as Wednesday earned one of their 15 points coming from behind in a burgeoning campaign.
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Danny Röhl’s side have been hit with unavailability over the Christmas period but there is good news on the condition of Liam Palmer, who has sat out of the last two matches through illness, and that of Olaf Kobacki who has sat out since October with a muscle issue. Both are expected to be in contention for the Deepdale clash. Key man defender Di’Shon Bernard will serve the final helping of his two-match suspension and there is a question mark hanging over in-form attacker Djeidi Gassama, who hobbled out of their Boro draw on Boxing Day.
“We have to look day to day now,” Röhl said. “Liam looks good, he started yesterday with the training. Olaf is ready to go. The aim was to bring him into the squad against Preston but then there was illness to Musa so we did it early. So far so good. Compare this to last year it is much, much better.”
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Wednesday will hope the scourge of illness within the squad does not worsen. Attacker Anthony Musaba fell to sickness before the Middlesbrough game and had to sit out at late notice, with returning injury case Olaf Kobacki rushed up to Teesside to deputise on the bench. It came days after Röhl was able to name just eight substitutes in their win over Stoke City owing to a flurry of illnesses within the squad.
He said: “Overnight Musa became ill, which is the reason why we took Olaf into the squad. Ben (Hamer) is still very ill, Icky (Michael Ihiekwe) is very ill. We have to try to stop this. At the moment we have no injuries but the illnesses are coming and this is something we need to stop. But you see the players that were out there ran their socks off and tried everything.”
