Darren Moore confirms Michael Hector u-turn as Sheffield Wednesday bring fan favourite back to S6

The Star revealed on Friday morning that Wednesday had u-turned on an initial reluctance to tap into the free agent market by considering the signing of the Owls’ 2018/19 player of the season, who is a free agent having left Fulham last summer.

Vitally, Moore made clear there was nothing imminent in terms of a decision on centre-half Hector, who has been back with his old club at S6 this week. No other signings are imminent, he said.

“We’re looking at him,” Moore said. “He’s a free agent and he's someone who has played here before. I came with West Brom a number of years ago and he was here. He's got good experience and there’s a potential platform where he can tick some of the boxes of what we want.

“At the moment it’s just an opportunity to take a look at him and that’s what we’re doing.

“He’s in the building already. We’re taking it steady and having a look. It’s great to see him and to give him that platform.

“We’ll work with what we’ve got and Michael has come into the building this week and he’s been training with us. We’re happy with that.”

MORE: Why Sheffield Wednesday pantomime villain will miss out for Fleetwood – ex-Tottenham Hotspur hot shot could make debut

Wednesday have been linked with a number of defenders in the last few weeks – with Moore keen to spell out the fact he will bring players in only if they are of the required quality.

Addressing concerns that Hector has not played a competitive match since May 2022 and that he may be well under cooked for consideration in what looks likely to be a tightly contested League One promotion battle, Moore expressed satisfaction from what he has seen at an early stage of the training period.

“I’ve been happy with what I’ve seen so far," he said. “We’re doing our own fitness data work which we need to tick off before he moves onto the next stage. He's still at that very early stage.

“He looks in good condition but as we know football fitness and volume are completely different and he’ll be getting that.”