After suffering a plethora of defensive injuries this season, Sheffield Wednesday had to deal with another problem at the back when they made the trip to Sunderland on Thursday evening.

The month of October was especially cruel to the Owls as they lost Dominic Iorfa, Lewis Gibson and Sam Hutchinson all to long-term injuries - all three of those being centre-backs under Darren Moore.

The likes of Liam Palmer and Marvin Johnson have had to fill in there whilst Ciaran Brennan has graduated from under-23 football, with the only senior option remaining being Chey Dunkley.

Dunkley had missed Wednesday's previous two matches against Portsmouth and Crewe but returned to the line-up at the Stadium of Light - only to last less than half an hour after pulling up with an injury.

Brennan was his replacement and Wednesday went on to be absolutely humiliated by Lee Johnson's side 5-0, avenging the 3-0 loss they suffered at Hillsborough earlier in the season.

Owls boss Moore issued an update on Dunkley post-match and it appears that it was more of a precautionary change more than anything.

“He came off because his hamstring tightened up and he felt like it was going to go at any time," Moore said, per YorkshireLive.

"We don’t feel that it has but we had to take him off the pitch.”

The Verdict

If Dunkley is out for a while then that is the last thing Moore and Wednesday need right now.

There has been enough injuries in the back-line at Hillsborough so far this season and it appears that Dunkley could now be at least sidelined for a few weeks.

Moore could feasibly have to play a whole defence full of full-backs or midfielders in the next few weeks unless any of his other injured defenders recover.

He will now be desperate to add new defenders to his squad at the start of January if the budget allows.