Sheffield Wednesday boss Garry Monk shares when Tom Lees could return to first-team action

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The Sheffield Wednesday captain has been recovering from a hamstring injury and is being monitored by the Owls backroom staff.

Sheffield Wednesday manager Garry Monk has confirmed that Tom Lees is to feature for the Owls Under-23s next week as he continues to build up his match fitness (Yorkshire Post).

The Wednesday captain had been sidelined since suffering a hamstring injury in the warm-up ahead of the Hillsborough fixture against Queens Park Rangers on 31 August.

After the Championship club posted footage of Lees back on the training pitch on Wednesday, fans speculated over whether the 28-year-old would make his return to the squad against Blackburn this weekend.

At his pre-match press conference on Thursday, Monk confirmed this would not be the case, instead earmarking the Swansea fixture on 9 November as a possibility for Lees’ return to first-team action.

“We’re still building up his football fitness,” Monk is quoted by the Yorkshire Post as saying. “He’s been on the training field all week, which is good. Every day you get stronger and stronger. You can do all the preparation you want in terms of rehab but when you come back to the intensity of training, we have to do right by him and make sure he’s at a level where when he is available for selection he can do himself justice. He’s still in that phase of building football fitness.

“He’ll get a game with the under-23s at the start of next week and we’ll build him up again that week, then assess him after that during the two-week period going into the Swansea game to decide whether he’s available for that or if he needs a bit more. Generally I try to work so that anybody who’s been out for over two weeks has a period of building football fitness and the possibility of playing two to three under-23 games to make sure they tick all the boxes.”

Dominic Iorfa has deputised well in the absence of Lees and on Saturday he was partnered in defence by central midfielder Sam Hutchinson, who dropped into the back four after Julian Borner pulled up in the warm-up (Yorkshire Post).