Danny Röhl delivers stark warning over Barry Bannan’s Sheffield Wednesday injury after trick play..
Danny Röhl spoke playfully on the unexpected return of Barry Bannan to Sheffield Wednesday’s line-up for their clash with Coventry City – but warned there are an important couple of days ahead on his continued availability.
The Owls boss spoke after Wednesday evening’s win at Swansea City about the injury to his captain, claiming the timescale on his comeback could be anywhere from a week to six weeks. What he tactically failed to mention was that the Scot was already on a programme hopefully designed to get him back into the starting line-up for Saturday’s Coventry clash.
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Despite a belief in the West Midlands that he would be unavailable, Bannan did start the game and played the full match as a dominant Owls performance went unrewarded in brutal fashion as Ellis Simms pounced on a late James Beadle error to win the game 2-1. Nobody on the pitch had more than his 109 touches or made more than his 88 passes.
“Sometimes I know more than you during the week!” he grinned when speaking to reporters. “We had a clear schedule built around how we build Barry up. He looked better after West Brom and the treatments had worked well. Before the Swansea game he started to make individual training and it started to look well and before this game he gave us the signal that he is ready.”
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Bannan played wearing a support below his knee but showed little sign of discomfort during the game. Röhl volunteered that there is a slight concern over how the impact of a full match might have on the issue.
“The crucial moment comes tomorrow (Sunday),” he said. “It could be that he is out again, or the reaction is not there and then he can carry on. Nobody knows at the moment.”
