Sheffield Wednesday have had to abandon their plan to use this week to build up the match fitness of new signing Liam Cooper.
The Scottish centre-back joined the club last week after the EFL allowed Wednesday to strengthen their thin squad. Manager Henrik Pedersen said over the weekend that the club were still in talks with the league about what contract terms they could offer another potential signing, with Duncan Watmore and Nathan Redmond both training at Middlewood Road.
Cooper, who signed a deal until the end of the season, had been out for months but was thrust into his debut in the Steel City derby after Dominic Iorfa couldn’t continue due to a back issue. The plan was for Cooper to get minutes with the under-21s against QPR on Tuesday to regain sharpness, with no intention for him to play at Millwall on Wednesday. However, Iorfa’s injury has forced a rethink, and Cooper was removed from the under-21s squad entirely.
Pedersen admitted after the derby loss that it was too early to fully assess Iorfa’s injury, though there was real worry about his availability for the trip to The Den. That concern has carried into the week, leaving Wednesday likely to rely on the 34-year-old Cooper for a starting role much sooner than expected, despite alternatives like Gabriel Otegbayo, Reece Johnson and Joe Emery. Cole McGhee did feature for the under-21s.
On Iorfa’s setback, Pedersen said: “He fell on his back. He’s had the issue before, and the doctor said we needed to take him off. I’m not sure how serious it is.”
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