Sheffield Wednesday's relegation rivals sweating over key man ahead of final day clash

Sheffield Wednesday’s relegation rivals Birmingham City will hope they can count on long-serving forward Lukas Jutkiewicz for their season-defining clash with Norwich City on Saturday. Birmingham find themselves in a precarious position head into their final game, needing to beat playoff-bound Norwich City to stand a chance of survival, while they also need results elsewhere to go their way.

One of those results could involve the Owls, with Birmingham needing to win and hope either Plymouth Argyle draw or lose, or that Wednesday or Blackburn Rovers lose. Ahead of the Norwich clash, Birmingham hope to be able to have striker Jutkiewicz after the veteran declared himself fit to face Huddersfield Town last time out, coming off the bench, though he is still struggling after a long-term knee problem.

“Jukey epitomises what you need at this stage of the season," said Blues boss Gary Rowett. "As he has done so many times, he just wants to get out there. He’s running around with more tape on him than I’ve ever seen in my life. He is going to do his best to be available. I think that’s really inspirational. That’s what you need to look at at this stage of the season, someone who has had to do it so many times but just cannot do it any other way than be incredibly professional.

“If he is available then at some point in the game he could be absolutely vital to change the game. We haven’t had the opportunity to do that at all really, so he could certainly give us a different outlet should we need it late on.”

Elsewhere, Birmingham will be without Oliver Burke, who has suffered a setback in his recovery, and long-term absentee Alfie Chang.