DID you hear the one about the midfielder that got sent off, had his card rescinded and then got injured in training?
Well welcome to Jos Luhukay’s life at Sheffield Wednesday at the moment. Possibly the most injured team in the country.
In a season that has been so far away from expectations that the Owls are fighting a relegation battle rather than challenging for promotion, it was no surprise to hear aggrieved fans calling for Carlos Carvalhal’s head towards the end of last year.
However, while the Premier League gets acquainted with Carlos and his metaphors, Wednesday are battling an injury crises of epic proportions as Luhukay looks to steady the ship after a rough few months at Hillsborough.
Sure, Wednesday have spent money – a lot of it – and should be challenging the top teams for a spot in the Premier League, but even the most sceptical fan can see that the injury situation up at S6 is not just a case of ‘making excuses’.
The situation with Marco Matias recently was the cherry on the top, though.
Wrongly sent off against Birmingham, there was good news for Luhukay as it was decided that his card would be taken back and his ban uplifted.
Excellent news, right? Wrong.
He then got injured and faces three weeks on the sidelines, joining half of his team-mates on the list of those unavailable.
You could actually make a starting XI of the players that have played 20 games or less this season due to injury . . .
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Kieren Westwood, Jack Hunt, Tom Lees, Glenn Loovens, Daniel Pudil, Marco Matias, Kieran Lee, Sam Hutchinson, Almen Abdi, Fernando Forestieri and Steven Fletcher.
That’s a decent team, isn’t it? You can then add Gary Hooper, Barry Bannan, George Boyd, Joost van Aken, David Jones and Jacob Butterfield into the equation too.
Lukuhay says he’s never seen anything like it.
Of the aforementioned 17 players, only four were fit enough to make Wednesday’s squad against Barnsley in the South Yorkshire Derby earlier this month, and just two have played upwards of 1700 minutes in the Championship.
Herein lies Luhukay’s problem.
With just one defeat in his eight games since taking over in the dugout, the Dutchman does seem to have gone some way to stopping the rot at Wednesday, but his battle this season now appears to be one for safety rather than promotion.
Tom Lees made it through 60 minutes with the Under-23s on Monday as he closes in on a return, but it doesn’t look like the Owls supporters will be seeing what they would call a ‘full strength’ side at any point before the season is out.
One plus side has been the emergence of Jordan Thorniley, Sean Clare, Frederik Nielsen, Connor O’Grady, Jack Stobbs and, most impressively, Joe Wildsmith, who are all 22 or under and have been given a shot at first team football due to the injury-ravaged team.
With Wednesday 15 points off the playoffs and only nine points clear of the bottom three, Luhukay will be focusing on what he does have – like his youngsters – rather than what he doesn’t.
But it will be interesting to see what the Dutch tactician can pull out of the bag when – or if – he ever has a full team at his disposal.
Twitter @YesWeCrann
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