Sheffield Wednesday have three important players who are in danger of receiving a Championship suspension. Liam Palmer, Sean Fusire and Barry Bannan will all be hoping to avoid bookings when Preston North End visit Hillsborough on Saturday.
According to EFL rules, any player who reaches five yellow cards in their club’s first 19 league matches receives a one-game ban. Dominic Iorfa picked up his fifth booking against Millwall and will therefore miss the Preston match.
Bannan’s late yellow card at The Den brought him level with Palmer and Fusire on three bookings each this season, increasing the possibility of a suspension. Saturday’s meeting with Preston will be Wednesday’s 18th Championship fixture, meaning the following weekend’s match against Blackburn Rovers will be the final game before the five-bookings cut-off point.
If Palmer, Fusire and Bannan avoid cautions against Preston, they will go into the trip to Blackburn with much less pressure, knowing they won’t have enough matches left to reach five yellows before the deadline.
With Wednesday already short on squad depth — even after signing Nathan Redmond — manager Henrik Pedersen will be keen to avoid any further suspension issues. Iorfa’s absence should see Palmer return to the starting XI, having missed his first league start of the season against Millwall.
However, if all three of them are booked on Saturday, they will need to be extremely disciplined at Ewood Park to avoid a fifth yellow card and missing the December 9 match at Watford.
Leave a Reply