Sheffield Wednesday pick up fresh injury concern during international break | OneFootball

The full-back has been away on international duty.

Sheffield Wednesday have been dealt a fresh injury blow during the international break, with defender Yan Valery picking up a calf issue whilst with the Tunisian national team.

The summer addition of Valery was one of 11 that the Owls made before last Friday's deadline. He'd previously worked with Danny Rohl during their respective tenures with Southampton, and reconnected this summer at Hillsborough.

Since joining Wednesday, the 25-year-old has started every league game for the club, replacing cult hero Liam Palmer in the right-sided defensive position.

Palmer has only made cameo appearances in the new league campaign, averaging 19 minutes per match. Those minutes could well go up though as the man in front of him in the pecking order could be sidelined because of a knock.

Yan Valery picks up calf injury on international duty

As relayed by the Sheffield Star, Valery sustained a "minor tear" in his calf during training with the Tunisian national team. He had been called up for two games against Madagascar and Gambia, the first of which was played on Thursday night. He wasn't involved then and he won't be involved in their second game of the international break either due to this injury.

An update from the Tunisian Football Federation stated: "After the training session on Tuesday evening, the player Yan Valerie felt some sharp pain in the calf, the doctor of the national team decided to subject him to MRI, which proved that he suffers a minor tear, which deserves a medical rest.

"Therefore, he will not be in the fault of the technical framework of the national team in the next two matches."

Wednesday do have cover in his position in case the injury proves to be more than just a minor one. Rohl and the fitness staff at Hillsborough will be waiting anxiously for Valery to return to the club so that they can give their own diagnosis on the extent of the lower leg problem.

He doesn't have a poor history of picking up knocks. Last season, when he helped Angers get promoted back to the French top division, Valery played in 35 of the 38 Ligue 2 matches, 34 of which he started, averaging 84 minutes per game.

The full-back wasn't the only Owl to go on international duty in this break. Wednesday's last signing of the window, Shea Charles, joined up with the Northern Irish first-team for their two games against Luxembourg and Bulgaria.

Meanwhile, in the Northern Irish under-21s, Pierce Charles will take on a fellow member of the Wednesday goalkeeping union as he faces James Beadle and his England under-21s side in an U21 European Championship qualifying game - Beadle was training with the England first-team earlier in the week, too.

Sheffield Wednesday need to use international break as a reset period

It's fair to say that since their first game of the season - a 4-0 victory against Plymouth Argyle - Wednesday have struggled to live up to the hype that has been built up around them so far this season.

They lost their next three games by and aggregate score of 9-0, and manager Danny Rohl has admitted that it's tough going into this break away from domestic football off the back of such a poor run for his side.

But, as much as it may hurt them to not be able to right their wrongs over the two-week period without games, they should use this time to analyse what has been going wrong and what they can do to fix things.

They face Queens Park Rangers in their first game after the international break. Whether Valery is fit for that game remains to be seen, but an understanding of why things aren't working should be found before their match against the R's.