Gary Megson critical of Sheffield Wednesday for overhauling medical team

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The former Sheffield Wednesday player and manager was discussing the Owls’ struggles on Monday.

There was no need for Sheffield Wednesday to overhaul their medical team last summer, according to their former player and manager Gary Megson.

Physios Paul Smith, Stephen Gilpin and David Henderson left Hillsborough last summer along with masseur Jake Tweedie, with Carlos Sales and one other their replacements.

As reported by the Sheffield Star, the departed quartet’s relationship with then Wednesday boss Carlos Carvalhal was at times strained during the previous campaign, in which the Owls suffered a number of injuries.

However, the situation has become even more grave this time around, leaving Carvalhal’s successor Jos Luhukay with at least 10 absentees in each of his games in charge since early January.

Discussing Wednesday’s season on Monday’s episode of The Ref Show, Megson’s former Hillsborough teammate David Hirst, whose son George is on the Owls’ books, said: “They have had a massive number of injuries, which comes after the change of the physio staff.

“I think at the time they weren’t happy with the injuries they were getting, then they’ve changed all the staff and got even more injuries – I don’t know how coincidental that is.”

And Megson added: “There was no need to change the physio staff because it was the same one I worked with [edit – of those who left last summer only Smith was permanently employed by Wednesday during Megson’s Hillsborough reign] and it was good. And they were all – I’m not saying they’re not now – but they were all wanting the best for Wednesday.

“You can’t always look at it and say, oh we’ve got loads of injuries, because sometimes you look and say is everybody absolutely busting a gut to get back?”

Luhukay certainly appears to have taken a more patient approach towards player recovery than his predecessor, Carvalhal, as Sam Hutchinson alluded to in an interview with BBC Radio Sheffield on Saturday.

The Sheffield Wednesday midfielder was often thrown straight in the Portuguese’s starting 11 after injury, but had to come through weeks of first team training and play for the Under-23 before his latest comeback under Luhukay.