Darren Moore explains key Sheffield Wednesday player decision in Shrewsbury draw | OneFootball

Sheffield Wednesday manager Darren Moore has revealed that winger Mide Shodipo was substituted during his side’s 1-1 draw with Shrewsbury on Saturday as a precaution.

Shodipo had been one of the Owls’ more influential players during Saturday’s match, winning a penalty that was missed by Barry Bannan, while seeing a goal of his own wrongly ruled out for off-side.

However, the on-loan QPR man was substituted with 20 minutes of the game remaining to be replaced by Wolves loanee Theo Corbeanu.

Can you get 24/24 on this Sheffield Wednesday striker quiz?

1 of 24

Jimmy Trotter made how many appearances for Sheffield Wednesday?

159

162

154

177

That move generated some frustration from within the Hillsborough crowd, but Moore has now revealed that it was done in order to protect Shodipo following his recent hamstring injury.

Explaining why the 24-year-old was substituted while Wednesday were searching for a winner, the Owls boss was quoted by The Sheffield Star as saying: “He’s been injured for some time with a hamstring for some time and when you get towards 70 minutes it’s not about one game.

“It’s about this whole season and keeping him on the pitch. It was the same with Dennis Adeniran, who had an inflammation in the muscle.

“Sometimes you don’t want to take them off, you want to keep them on the pitch, but we need them on the pitch for the games coming.

“You don’t want them to breakdown. When that happens it’s unforgivable really. They’ll get up to speed where they can play 90 minutes.”

Next up for Shodipo and Wednesday, is a trip to Portman Road to face Ipswich Town on Saturday afternoon.

Love the EFL? Want to share your opinions about your club? Get involved by subscribing to FLW TV on Youtube HERE!

The Verdict

While it must have been frustrating for Wednesday fans to see an influential player such as Shodipo leaving the pitch, this does seem like a sensible decision from Moore.

The main priority for the Owls this season has to be securing promotion back to the Championship across the course of the whole campaign.

Shodipo is a player who, if he is able to stay fit, looks as though he has the ability to have a major impact on their efforts to do that, so Moore is going to want him available for as many games as possible.

With that in mind, if losing Shodipo for 20 minutes here, means they do not risk losing him for several games further down the line, then this looks like a sensible approach for Wednesday to take.