Key Sheffield Wednesday man to make 'next step forward' with Blackburn return a possibility

Defender Di’Shon Bernard was a late pull-out in their 1-1 home draw with Swansea City late last month, having returned from international duty with Jamaica feeling tightness. An issue picked up in the warm-up saw Bambo Diaby step up in his place.

The former Manchester United youngster has fast become a popular figure at S6, making 34 appearances across all competitions this season. Speaking over the weekend, Owls boss Danny Röhl maintained his hope that Bernard would be able to come back into contention, with plans in place to step up his rehabilitation this week.

“Next week we have a long week and he will make the next step forward,” Röhl told The Star. “Maybe he will be back. Everybody is nearly back, I think we had players on the bench and off the pitch. We all stay together and keep going.”

Marvin Johnson and Ike Ugbo were able to make their comeback from injuries in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Stoke City. Röhl has refused to rule Ian Poveda out of a possible comeback for the final day clash at Sunderland, though The Star has reason to believe the chances of that are slim as things stand.

Bernard is one of a huge number of Wednesday players coming towards the end of their contract at S6.

Speaking to The Star in January, Bernard said: “At the moment it's just about trying to play every game and at the end we can see what happens. I can't say what will happen, really, because I don't really know. I'm happy playing here under Danny. Since he has come here you can see that we're playing much better football and I'm really enjoying working under him. We'll see what happens.

"We've had conversations and in terms of my future he's keen to have me and to continue to work with me, so it's just ongoing conversations. There's nothing official just yet but we'll go forward with it and see what happens."