Sheffield Wednesday confirm that Steven Fletcher will be out of action for ‘eight to ten weeks’ with a knee injury. The 32-year-old damaged his knee after receiving a challenge from Gaetan Bong in Wednesday’s 1-0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion (January 4) but wasn’t meant to be sidelined for too long.
Garry Monk was hoping to have Fletcher back within a week, but he’s now revealed that the Scottish international could be out until March. He said in Thursday’s pre-match press conference: “Our initial thoughts were, when you looked at his reaction and how it was, it was very serious.
“He’s had the scan and it’s good and bad news really. As I said, it looked as though it could be a really serious one, but the scan has come back and structurally his knee is fine.
“But he will be out for a significant period of time, roughly around eight to 10 weeks so it’s a blow for us, to lose any player is a blow but particularly your top goalscorer, who’s in such good form. So it’s bittersweet really in the sense that it could have been a season-ender but it’s a significant period out.
Fletcher has made 24 appearances in all competitions, scoring and creating 14 goals. The centre-forward missed three of Wednesday’s last four league games due to an illness before returning in the 1-0 defeat to Hull City (January 1).
Monk then started Fletcher against Brighton but had to bring him off after 55 minutes following the injury. The Wednesday manager will have Jordan Rhodes, Atdhe Nuhiu, Sam Winnall and Fernando Forestieri to replace Fletcher, but the four players have scored only seven league goals between them this season – only 58% of the 32-year-old’s tally.
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Monk admitted being surprised by the length of Fletcher’s layout given how “innocuous” the initial challenge from Bong look, but the Scottish striker has begun his rehabilitation and will work hard to return sooner than anticipated.
He added: “It’s always unfortunate when it’s something so innocuous, something you do thousands of times in training and hundreds of times in a game. I’ve spoken to him about it and it looks to be the way he’s landed on the other player’s foot that has left him in an awkward position.
“I’ve had a good chat with him, he’s experienced, he’s a real professional and understands what he needs to do. He’ll be focused and give himself the best opportunity to be back as soon as possible.
“He’s already on with his re-hab, he’s on course for having his best-ever season in terms of goal tally and I think he would have smashed that with the way he was going on about his work. He’ll still have time to beat that when he comes back.”
