The Owls meet Brighton at Hillsborough in the first leg on Friday.
Chris Hughton has admitted that he is wary of the threat that Sheffield Wednesday striker Gary Hooper will pose when Brighton travel to Hillsborough for the first-leg of their Championship play-off semi-final, the Sheffield Star reports.
Despite only joining the Owls in October and not scoring for Carlos Carvalhal’s side until December, Hooper is the club’s second highest goalscorer this season.
And Hughton – who signed the 28-year-old when he was Norwich City boss – explained that the way that the forward’s season has played out means that the Seagulls will have to be extremely careful as he is capable of taking the tie away from them.
“Gary’s a massive threat and a very, very good player,” he told the Star. “What I think he has given them is an energy.”
“He didn’t play very much early in the season at Norwich and went on loan initially before Christmas so I would imagine, looking at some of his performances, that he’s in peak form as well, not having played so much as the beginning of the season.”
Although Hughton is concerned about Hooper, the former Celtic man goes into the game off the back of a poor run of form to end the regular season.
Though he bagged a brace in his most recent game – the victory over Cardiff that sealed their top six spot – he had scored just once in his previous 12 appearances for Wednesday.
But with Hughton knowing just how ruthless Hooper can be, he may be worried that his recent dry spell just makes him more determined to prove himself in the Owls’ biggest game of the season so far.
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