Touch-and-go Massimo Luongo has ‘shared insights’ on Sheffield Wednesday with Ipswich Town - ex-Sheffield United man ruled out

The Australian international left Hillsborough in the summer for Middlesbrough and after a half-season without making a senior appearance, signed on with the Suffolk promotion hopefuls last month.

Having only played a handful of minutes for the Tractor Boys, Luongo is touch-and-go for the Portman Road clash this weekend having sustained a knock that kept him out of their FA Cup replay defeat at Burnley in midweek.

Luongo’s captain Sam Morsy earlier spoke glowingly of the impact his new midfield colleague can make on their second half of the season and McKenna revealed conversations he had had with Luongo about Wednesday’s ‘mindset’.

“We have conversations about what it’s like at other clubs,” McKenna said.

“He played against us last January and that’s something we’ve discussed previously, about his experience of playing against us.

“He’s shared different insights about the mindset of the opposition and I don’t think there’s anything drastically different we’re going to learn about this game.

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“We know the qualities we will be facing and we know what we have to do and try to stop them doing.”

On lines not unfamiliar to Wednesday supporters, Luongo’s availability is up in the air owing to a fitness concern, along with that of Wales international Wes Burns.

One player who certainly won’t be fit to line up for Ipswich is former Sheffield United creative midfielder Lee Evans, who was taken off at half-time in their disappointing 1-1 draw at Cambridge United last weekend.

“Lee is not going to be available,” manager Kieran McKenna said. “He has an issue in his knee but we don’t know the severity of it yet. We’ll have him assessed over the next few days.

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“Massimo and Wes have trained with the group and we’ll have to make a judgement call over their availability tomorrow [Saturday].

“They have missed a little bit of time but we also have Tuesday [at Bristol Rovers] coming round quickly as well.”