Barry Bannan misses out on a return to Wanderers due to suspension after the midfielder was sent off during Sheffield Wednesday’s Championship opener at Leicester City over the weekend.
Bannan - who had a loan spell with the Whites in 2015 – was shown two yellow cards in the space of four minutes at the King Power Stadium.
The Owls had gone in front through Nathaniel Chalobah but Leicester hit back through Jannik Vestergaard and Wout Faes in the second half to secure the points.
The build-up to the game was dominated by the problems off the pitch at Hillsborough and supporters co-ordinated a walk-in after five minutes of play.
Moreover, Wednesday had only 15 senior players available before the game and saw Chalobah and Yan Valery forced off against the Foxes.
New manager Henrik Pedersen (not the ex-Wanderer), who stepped up from assistant following Danny Rohl’s departure, was proud of the performance despite ultimately leaving empty-handed.
“I’m sitting with a very proud feeling for the performance from the boys. It has been some tough few weeks,” he said.
“When you have a little squad and play a lot of training against your under-21s and then come to Leicester, one of the best teams in the league, it was a big challenge.
“How the boys competed, I’m really proud of this and we need those games now to get the intensity so we can take the next step.
“I think our fans are a big inspiration for our players and in an away game like today, at a really good team, where you have many difficult phases in a game, the fans are pushing, they are helping.”
Wednesday had their transfer embargo lifted last Friday but are still unable to spend fees on players.
The embargo was initially put in place earlier this summer after owner Dejphon Chansiri failed to pay wages on time.
Pedersen is looking to bolster the squad and admits he may have to switch things around against the Whites.
“We will look tomorrow, it was a tough lesson for the boys,” he added. “Let’s see the reaction, what we can do with the Stoke game in mind on Saturday.
“We are also searching for new players. We need to have new players but still we need to do it with patience.
“We need new players otherwise you cannot play a championship with 46 games. We need some guys very quickly but still, we need to have the right feeling when we sign someone.”
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