Fifth-placed Plymouth make the trip to Hillsborough on Saturday afternoon for what will be Dave Challinor’s first League One game as manager of the Owls, and his first proper outing at Wednesday’s storied stadium.
Henrik Pedersen was dealing with a number of injury concerns before he lost his job at S6, and things haven’t got too much better for his successor, with Max Lowe the latest to join the long list of absentees.
Sil Swinkels is back from suspension, while Di’Shon Bernard, Yan Valery, Liam Palmer and Jamal Lowe should also be available after suffering a mixture of cramp/fatigue vs Oldham Athletic.
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Here’s the state of play with those that are either out or in doubt for this weekend’s clash…
Max Lowe
“Max has got a recurrence of the injury he had earlier in the season,” Challinor said. “So he’s going to be out for a period, probably maybe four to six weeks. It’s disappointing because you saw the impact and the profile of him in terms of what we want to try and do in possession. So that’s disappointing for everybody but something that we’ll have to deal with.”
Louie Barry
“He’s obviously desperate to make an impact,” the Owls boss explained. “He came here in order to do that and it feels probably at the moment that’s been taken away from him. We hope to see him back certainly within the coming weeks. Maybe Saturday, we’ll see what the next few days look like.”
Liam Cooper and Billy Mitchell
“Coops has trained yesterday and today, Billy similarly,” Wednesday’s new manager says.
Harry Gray
“He’s fine,” said Challinor. “He got a whack on the hip on Friday and then straight away when he went to do the warm-up on Sunday he sort of felt it. So we obviously made the change and George went onto the bench for him. Harry’s trained today so fingers crossed it is just a soft tissue injury and he’ll be available for us at the weekend.”
Joe Lumley
“We’re hoping that Lummers will be back with us really soon,” DC said. “Possibly at the weekend. He’s done some training with us this week and has ticked off most things… He’ll be really important because of his experience and the level that he’s played at.”
Ashley Maynard-Brewer
“Ash obviously took a bit of a whack but he’s fine,” says the Owls manager. “He probably misses the weekend, and will be back involved early next week on either Monday or Tuesday.”
Reece James
James is expected back around mid-December after picking up a groin injury earlier this month.
Mason Burstow
“He got injured in the Blackpool game,” Challinor told the media recently. “So he’s going to be out for four to six weeks. I think he’s tweaked a groin with the shot he had from the halfway line.”
Ali Al-Hamadi
“Ali joined in today, but the weekend probably comes to soon for him,” said Challinor.
Tyler Onyango
“He’s working very, very hard but there’s a long way to go for him so we do all what we can to support him,” Pedersen told the media just days before his departure. “He’s a top young man and he’s working hard so we’ll do all what we can to help him.
“Of course, it is difficult for him to come here and then get injured in his first game,” said Pedersen. “But we have good group and they support him and do all what they can to help him.”
The Opposition
As for the Pilgrims, they’ve got a whole host of their own issues. Michael Baidoo has been ruled out for ‘longer than a month’, while top scorer, Aribim Peppe, will miss the next few games due to injury.
Elsewhere, Julio Pleguezuelo and captain, Joe Edwards, will miss this weekend’s clash, while Alex Mitchell faces a late fitness test ahead of the tie, and the same goes for former Owl, Tyreeq Bakinson. Caleb Watts, meanwhile, could return, with Matthew Sorinola only due back in training next week.
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