Sheffield Wednesday: Owls head coach Carlos Carvalhal explains Atdhe Nuhiu omission

Carlos Carvalhal has spoken for the first time on his decision to leave Atdhe Nuhiu out of his match-day squad against Leeds United.

Striker Nuhiu, who has been heavily linked with a move away from Hillsborough over the last month, played no part in the Owls’ 2-0 home defeat last weekend.

Carvalhal paired Fernando Forestieri and Steven Fletcher up front and elected to name centre forwards Gary Hooper and Lucas Joao on the substitutes bench. Hooper was introduced at half-time after Almen Abdi suffered a shoulder injury.

Nuhiu has only started once this season, featuring in Wednesday’s EFL Cup loss away to Cambridge United, and has made three substitute appearances.

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Carvalhal told The Star: “We have a lot of attackers. We played with two attackers and had Lucas [Joao] who was on the bench who was not involved in the game.

“It was a technical game.

“Atdhe is a professional player. When we have 23 to 24 players and you must choose 18, it is normal that some of them will understand that they won’t be involved.

“It doesn’t mean that in the next game they can’t play in the first eleven. Last season, this happened quite often.”

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The Owls head to Brentford tomorrow without injured trio Jose Semedo (hamstring), Marco Matias (groin) and Filipe Melo (knee).

Midfielder David Jones, drafted in for an undisclosed fee from Burnley last week, is in contention to make his full debut.

Wednesday, without a win in four matches, have lost only one of their last 10 trips to the Bees in all competitions, winning five and drawing four.

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