Barry Bannan: Midfielder gives Sheffield Wednesday injury lift

Sheffield Wednesday's Barry Bannan is expected to return to action on Boxing Day

Barry Bannan is expected to return for Sheffield Wednesday in the Boxing Day trip to Fleetwood.

The Scotland midfielder missed the draw with Oxford at the weekend but is expected to be available as the Owls seek to keep their League One promotion push on track.

Bannan, 33, feared he had damaged a hamstring after pulling up in the draw at Exeter last week.

Scans showed the damage was minimal and he was considered for the Oxford game.

Owls manager Darren Moore confirmed afterwards that both Bannan and George Byers, out since 26 October with a foot injury, are on course for a comeback next week, and both were expected back in training on Monday.

Moore told BBC Radio Sheffield that Bannan was almost fit enough to play on Saturday.

"We took the decision because we spoke with Baz about where he's at and we just couldn't take the risk with him," said Moore.

"But rest assured he will be back next week and George, along with Dennis Adeniran, will play an in-house game to finally finish off their rehabilitation from injury.

"Providing we get a good clean week out of them, it gives us nine days, more than sufficient time for them to feature."

Bannan himself revealed he had feared a serious problem, which would have been a big blow to Wednesday's hopes as they seek to close the gap on top two Plymouth and Ipswich.

In the Owls programme he said: "I was expecting the worst so it's the best news I could have got and having not had many muscle injuries in my time, I didn't really know when people were asking how bad it was, I had nothing to go off.

"I was sprinting and that's when I felt it. I tried to carry on because I thought I'm never really injured so maybe it's just a normal niggle, but when I got back up and tried to break into a jog it wasn't right.

"Looking back at it I probably didn't need to do it, running that far back, because we had enough bodies covering. I probably need to rein it in a little bit.

"So this week I have given it a chance to heal and getting treatment so it will be symptom-based over the next few days and go from there."