Barry Bannan has been struggling with a groin injury of late, leading to him playing in a more a deeper role in midfield and being dropped to the bench in Sheffield Wednesday’s 3-0 defeat to Reading (February 15).
The 30-year-old returned to the starting lineup in their 3-3 draw with Birmingham City (February 22) and put in an impressive performance, which Bannan revealed may have been down to an injection he had.
Bannan told Alex Miller of the Sheffield Star: “The last couple of games, I have not been great to be honest. I have been struggling with an injury. My groin, I had it two years ago and I just want to play games. It would be easy to just sit out. It’s more a tendonitis thing.
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“If it was a hamstring pull where you know you can’t play, it’s different. Because of what it is, and you can play. I have probably been playing at about 70-80%. I would probably need to be dragged off the pitch to not play.
“When the gaffer dropped me last week that was one of the reasons behind it. I probably needed that otherwise I probably would have kept on playing. I had an injection on Monday and I thought it didn’t work because on Thursday I had to come off but today is the best I have felt.”
The Scotland international has made 33 appearances in all competitions this season, scoring and creating nine goals. He’s been a regular in midfield under Garry Monk but needed to be managed for the sake of his groin injury.
With Joey Pelupessy in poor form of late, Josh Windass being left on the bench, Alex Hunt being inexperienced due to his young age and Massimo Luongo struggling with injury, Wednesday can’t do without Bannan. Kieran Lee has featured consistently when fit, but Monk is currently short on cover.
The Owls next face Charlton Athletic on Wednesday, but it remains to be seen whether Monk deems Bannan fit enough to play two games in four days.
