Exclusive: Sky Sports pundit makes "surprised" claim on Ike Ugbo situation at Sheffield Wednesday | OneFootball

Speaking exclusively with FLW, David Prutton has been speaking on Ugbo's goalscoring woes at Wednesday this season.

The permanent signing of Ike Ugbo seemed a slam-dunk decision by Sheffield Wednesday in the summer after his highly fruitful loan spell at Hillsborough during the second half of last season.

The 26-year-old striker bagged seven goals in 18 Championship appearances for the Owls after joining on loan from French side Troyes in January of last year, and as such, the club made sure to make him a permanent piece of the furniture, with a £2.5m deal being agreed.

As such, the Canadian international played a lifesaving role, as Wednesday narrowly escaped the drop into League One by just three points.

However, with just eight games to play this season, he's yet to find the net in 31 league outings this term, with his solitary Wednesday goal this season coming in the 5-1 Carabao Cup win over Grimsby Town back in August.

"Quite clearly" - David Prutton issues Ike Ugbo, Sheffield Wednesday verdict

Speaking exclusively with Football League World, we asked Sky Sports pundit and former player, David Prutton: 'Are you surprised at how Ike Ugbo has struggled at Sheffield Wednesday since arriving for a £2.5m fee?'

Prutton said: "Ike Ugbo - struggling at Sheffield Wednesday since arriving for £2.5m.

"Quite clearly, that's a player low on confidence, which I think Danny Rohl has alluded to. No shortage of work-rate, which I think given when you're in a position such as this, that keeps you in the hearts and minds of the fans.

"Obviously needs a break along the way; just one goal in the cup. He set a decent standard on loan, didn't he? Which is obviously why Danny Rohl felt the need to drop the hammer and get him in permanently.

"I know there's a bit of a recent consensus with regards to the money spent on strikers that haven't quite fit the bill. Like I said, he seems like an extremely likeable member of the team. I'm surprised given, as I said, the benchmark that he'd laid down on loan.

"Sometimes subconsciously, I'm not saying it's remotely meant by a player, but sometimes subconsiously that hunger to prove what you can do to a new club with the potential to move there can garner great results.

"It's quite clearly not been the case so far this season, even though we've got a Wednesday side that's chugging along pretty nicely. It's not just the player, you've got to look at the support for the player on the pitch.

"If you look at the service for the player, and if he's not getting it, then Ugbo needs to make sure that the players that are responsible for that are the ones that step up.

"But, the responsibility for his form solely lays at his feet, and he's got a decent portion of time between now and the end of the season to get back into the side to finish the season strongly."

Rohl has confirmed Sheffield Wednesday are working to resolve Ike Ugbo confidence crisis

It's been a tough and taxing season on Ugbo, that's of no doubt.

As a centre-forward, when you aren't scoring goals, the longer that dry spell in front of goal continues, the larger and louder the monkey on the back becomes.

Hillsborough remains largely behind their misfiring striker though, with his name still being sung from the stands of Wednesday's historic amphitheatre in an attempt to will that first league goal to arrive.

As previously mentioned, Rohl has admitted that there is a confidence issue with Ugbo at this present time, which is to be expected, but the Owls boss has confirmed that they are working on a plan to address it.

Speaking via The Star in early March, Rohl said: "We have to work on this, we know this."

Therefore, with just a handful of games to go, it remains to be seen whether the German boss will thrust Ugbo back into the spotlight and trust that he will banish his goalscoring hex, or perhaps use this time between now and the end of the season to focus entirely on correcting his confidence problem to ensure that they have him primed for a big 2025/26 rebound.