Sheffield Wednesday: Owls optimistic Sam Hutchinson will be fit to face Nottingham Forest

Hutchinson sustained the knock in the midweek victory over Blackburn Rovers and was forced off with 17 minutes remaining.

The 27-year-old, who scored a first half own goal, played through the pain barrier in the second half after notifying head coach Carlos Carvalhal of the problem at half-time.

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Carvalhal conceded he was reluctant to take off Hutchinson too soon and leave himself with one less substitute option.

“Sam felt something in his hip,” he said.

“I talked to him at the break and he said he was feeling worse and worse so we decided he would go near the limit.

“We took the decision to put him out and we expected it to not be a problem as usually he recovers well. But the pain became more intense so we had to bring Sam off.

“We didn’t change him at the beginning or at half-time but because we want to win the game.

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“In this kind of situation where we play Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday, we try to put the players at the limit because we never know whether another player will ask to be substituted. If we change all the players, we can do nothing.”

The Portuguese chief expects Tom Lees (knee) and Gary Hooper (quad) to be “okay in a few days”. The duo sat-out the Blackburn fixture but are edging nearer to first-team returns. Hooper was poised to take part in training yesterday.

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