Pierce Charles will have a scan on his injured shoulder tomorrow after leaving the pitch in tears during the 2-0 FA Cup defeat to Brentford at Hillsborough this afternoon.
Charles, who was sidelined earlier this season with an injury to his other shoulder, produced several outstanding saves in the third round tie against Premier League opposition. The last of these stops came just before the hour from Mathias Jensen but, after lengthy treatment, Charles was forced off the pitch with Logan Stretch coming on as replacement for his first team debut.
Henrik Pedersen said afterwards: “It’s the opposite shoulder to the previous injury and Pierce has a lot of pain. After a scan tomorrow we’ll know more.
“It’s awful for him, he’s such an important part of our way of playing, defensively and offensively.
“How he has played since he came back is fantastic. It’s so sad if it’s another injury that keeps him out for weeks or longer. I really hope the best for him.
Not surprisingly we were totally outplayed by the Bees, given the difference in the strength of the two squads, and it could have been a heavier defeat but for those saves from Charles, the woodwork and some poor finishing from the visitors.
Brentford almost took the lead on 12 minutes when Reiss Nelson cut in from the left and sent a fierce shot from the edge of the box which hit the underside of the Kop end bar and away to safety.
Nine minutes later the woodwork again came to our rescue from a Keane Lewis-Potter header.
However, the Bees did take the lead on 27 minutes and it was from another dead ball situation, something that has been a problem for us all season.
Jensen delivered a free kick to the far post and Lewis-Potter was allowed to run in unchallenged to tuck the ball home from close in at the far post.
It took 32 minutes for Wednesday to get a shot on target but keeper Hakon Valdimarsson easily saved Charlie McNeill’s low 20-yarder.
At the other end, Brentford missed a great chance to double their lead just before half time when Cole McGhee failed to cut out Jordan Henderson’s through ball but Jensen blazed over from the edge of the box.
Shortly after the restart, Charles saved from Romelle Donovan and the same player miskicked from six yards out soon afterwards.
Charles then made that outstanding save to keep out a deflected Jensen effort from 12 yards out but immediately signalled he had a problem with his shoulder and eventually had to be subbed by Stretch, whose first action in the first team was to face a penalty,
Donovan was fouled by McGhee on 64 minutes and Jensen stepped up to hammer home the spot kick.
Soon afterwards came a rare threat from Wednesday when Nathan Redmond’s shot was pushed away for a corner and Svante Ingelsson’s far post header from the flag kick was comfortably held by Valdimarsson.
At the other end, Stretch excelled with a fine stop to deny Lewis-Potter and the visitors ran out comfortable two-goal winners.
Talking about the youthful Wednesday team that took on Brentford, Pedersen added: “We wanted to play the strongest team but we can’t from a health perspective.
“I could not put Barry in, we have just had a crazy Christmas programme and the chance that Barry will get injured was too big – Liam Palmer, too.
“Jamal Lowe has played so many minutes. He’s tired and there’s too big a risk, we are in a dark red zone right now. The boys are on the limit and we try to manage this in the best possible way.
“Now they need rest again. I would love to have played with senior players today, but the risk was too big.
“It was a learning game for a lot of players today and it’s a big experience we can use for the next step of the individual development.”
Charles (Stretch 59), Fusire, Otegbayo, McGhee, Alao (Johnson 59), Emery, Shipston (Redmond 59), Thornton, Ingelsson, McNeill (Grainger 89), Cadamarteri (Moses 77). Unused subs: Kay, J Lowe, Onukwuli, Palmer. Attendance: 10,642.
