Owls Rocked By Jeffers Blow

Wednesday may have picked up an unexpected win at Stoke on Saturday, but they were dealt another injury blow after Francis Jeffers was taken off on a stretcher.

Jeffers, who arrived at S6 from Blackburn Rovers in the summer, has endured an injury ravaged career and was hoping to get a good run of games in the Wednesday attack this season.

But the ‘fox in the box’ suffered another huge setback yestrday after being taken off midway in the first half after a crunching challenge from Stoke’s Ryan Shawcross.

And the former Everton and Arsenal man is set for another long spell on the sidelines after picking up what looked like a broken ankle from the clash, alhough the full extent of the injury is set to be found out this week.

‘I would like to have sat here after the game and been positive about the performance and the result but I am dejected,’ Laws told the official SWFC website.

‘I’ve lost a quality player with a broken ankle and the icing has been taken off the cake. Francis Jeffers is a genuine lad who has real quality and has worked his socks off.’

And the Owls boss was left fuming at the decision not to send Shawcross off for the challenge, that Laws believes should be being cut out of the game.

‘I thought we were supposed to be cutting out these tackles from behind and I thought the referee handled the game well today but he made a wrong decision,’ he continued.

‘I am not saying the player has gone out to do that deliberately, I’m really not but when you see a lad who has gone down with a broken ankle as a result it is tough to take. You could see that was a bad tackle from the stands.’