Sheffield Wednesday hopes raised with Leeds United man spotted at Middlewood Road ahead of Sunderland

Tricky attacker Ian Poveda is on loan from Leeds United and made a marked impact on the season before sustaining injury troubles that has sat him out of the last four matches. The Colombia international has been working his way back from a hamstring injury, with his recovery taking place partly with a personal trainer and also between the training grounds of both his loan and parent clubs.

The Star understands it was initially feared that Poveda would be ruled out for the remainder of the campaign. But he appears to have made fast progress after he was shown training with the first team at Middlewood Road this week. Owls boss Danny Röhl has refused to rule him out of a final day comeback at Sunderland - which arrives this weekend with Wednesday needing a point to guarantee survival.

Poveda had a second scan on his injury last week and it appears to have gone well. The 24-year-old was shown in good spirits in the footage released by the club. He is set to become a free agent this summer, with Röhl having hinted at the possibility of an effort to sign the player in the summer. An initial permanent transfer from Leeds was mooted in January but was changed to a loan deal late on.

“He will have a second scan this week and then we will look at how bad the situation is, or hopefully good,” Röhl said last week. “We will see what we can do next week. But it’s only one week to go and with such an injury it is difficult to say he will be back or not back.

“For him it is important he comes back really healthy and that there is no problem. An injury would not be helpful. I think he is in a good way and this is good to see. We will see next week in which situation we are.”