The Sheffield Wednesday striker was just hitting form for Derby County.
Jos Luhukay has revealed that Sam Winnall is close to a resuming full training after the Sheffield Wednesday striker suffered a knee ligament injury while on loan to Derby County last term.
Winnall was farmed out to Derby in August 2017 by Luhukay’s predecessor, Carlos Carvalhal, and has yet to play for Wednesday’s current boss after having his season curtailed in February.
But he could have a chance to impress the Dutchman over the course of the next few weeks.
Asked for updates on Winnall – who scored six goals in 18 games for Derby – along with fellow absentees Kieran Lee and Joost van Aken at the Owls’ pre-West Bromwich Albion press conference on Tuesday, Luhukay said: “They are all working very intensive and hard but it will take time.
“The only player who now is very close to the team is Sam Winnall, he is making very good progression and we think he can maybe the end of this week or next week come back to our team training and also maybe play his first game for the Under-23s in the next two or three weeks. It’s very positive.
“Kieran Lee and Joost van Aken they need a couple of weeks. But we must take our time with them.”
It is not such good news for some of Sheffield Wednesday’s other missing men, however, with Marco Matias the latest Owls player struck down.
Luhukay, who described Matias’s recent form as the best of his nine-month reign, has ruled the Portuguese winger out of West Brom’s visit – and potentially “a couple of weeks” with a hamstring injury.
And the 55-year-old said of Gary Hooper, a long-term absentee: “He will have further checks.
“He has not trained now for a couple of weeks, but it will take a lot of time until he is 100 per cent available for our team. That will not change for the next couple of weeks and it will take a few more weeks until Gary can help us.”
Defenders Ashley Baker and Daniel Pudil could feature at Hillsborough, however, despite their recent knocks.
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