Callum Paterson injury blow should lead Sheffield Wednesday to pursue 35-year-old free agent striker: Opinion | OneFootball

Sheffield Wednesday may be flying high in the automatic promotion places in League One, but they may regret not doing one particular piece of transfer business in the January window.

On the face of it, the Owls were doing just fine in terms of results on the pitch, and they replaced a key player in Mark McGuinness – who was recalled by Cardiff City – with the experience of Aden Flint.

But judging off the last few weeks, one position that could have really done with an addition was up-front.

The main pairing at the top end of the pitch of Josh Windass and Michael Smith have scored 18 goals between them in League One, and when Windass is deployed as a number 10 then Moore had Callum Paterson, Lee Gregory and Mallik Wilks to choose from.

Both Gregory and Wilks have been in and out of the matchday squads with injuries though in recent weeks, and with neither on the bench for Wednesday’s last two league matches, it has left Moore’s options incredibly thin on the ground.

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And that is because Paterson was also sidelined at the start of the month, having suffered a serious hamstring injury in the 1-0 victory over Plymouth Argyle at Hillsborough – despite the majority of this season’s appearances coming as a striker, the Scotland international started at wing-back and scored the winning goal early on in the contest before being struck down by a cruel twist of fate.

If Gregory and Wilks won’t return anytime soon or they can’t keep fully-fit, then Moore may have to look towards the free agents market – one which looks pretty thin on the ground in terms of forwards.

There is a stand-out name available though and that is Lewis Grabban, who following a short stint in the Saudi Arabian second tier with Al-Ahli – scoring once in five league outings – is ready to be picked up by an English team should anyone come in for him.

Grabban made the move to the Middle East during the summer months after his contract at Nottingham Forest expired following a four-year stint at the City Ground, where he became a fan favourite for his goals and clear passion in the Tricky Trees shirt.

It’s fair to say that Grabban is a seasoned professional and he has played for a lot of teams in his career, with 12 different clubs on his résumé, and he has moved for some decent-sized transfer fees in that time, but his time at Forest did show that despite being in his 30’s, he still knows where the back of the net is, with 56 goals in all competitions in his time at the Reds.

There would be risks in going for Grabban – even until the end of the season – as he missed several weeks of his final season with Forest through injury.

At the age of 35, those kinds of niggles will start to creep in the older you get, but it will not have affected Grabban’s taste for goals in any way, shape or form.

And it isn’t like Grabban will be starting week in, week out should he make the move – Smith and Windass are the first-choice partnership and if they stay fit it will stay that way, but with the amount of experience he has at a level above what Wednesday are currently playing at, he could provide a fantastic option off the bench.

Grabban would surely want to be involved in another promotion season given the opportunity, and it is an avenue that the Wednesday hierarchy should definitely explore thanks to Paterson being potentially out for the rest of the season – it could be a deal that gets the club over the line and back into the second tier.