Sheffield Wednesday have failed to live up to pre-season expectations.
Fulham defender Ryan Fredericks believes a long list of injuries have hindered Sheffield Wednesday this season and with a fully fit squad they would be much higher up the league, the club’s official website report.
The two teams reached the playoffs last season, both faltering at the semi-final stage as Huddersfield Town and Reading went on to contest the final at Wembley for a place in the Premier League.
While Fulham are looking to go one better this term as they current battle Cardiff City for the second automatic promotion spot, Wednesday in contrast find themselves languishing in the lower half of the table.
Ahead of their meeting on Saturday, Fredericks believes the Owls would be much higher up in the Championship table had they not overseen numerous injuries to key first-team players earlier on in the campaign.
“It will be another tough game, but they all are. I think they’ve had bad injuries this season which is probably the reason why they’re down there,” the right-back told Fulhamfc.com.
“If they’d kept the team they had back-end of last season then I expect they’d be higher up the table.”
The Owls have suffered a horrific run of injuries this season, with key players such as Fernando Forestieri, Sam Hutchinson, Kieran Lee, Keiren Westwood and Barry Bannan missing huge chunks on the side-lines.
In fact, only one Wednesday player has managed to make more than 26 starts this term, and that’s winger Adam Reach who has appeared in every game either as a starter or coming off the bench.
Injuries may have caused Carlos Carvalhal to lose his job, yet his replacement Jos Luhukay has made the side less reliant on key individuals and performances have improved of late.
The Owls won both of their Easter games in impressive fashion, yet they come up against a Fulham side who are 18 games unbeaten and have the bit between their teeth in the race for promotion.
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