Sheffield Wednesday's final game before Christmas sees them take on Bournemouth at Hillsborough, weather permitting. The Owls midweek home game with Wigan was abandoned during torrential conditions and with more heavy rain predicted on Friday and Saturday there could be a risk of the pitch being waterlogged again.
There was no option but to call an end to the game against Wigan but in truth Wednesday will be happy to get a second chance against the Latics. The visitors were much the better side in the first half and deserved their 1-0 lead and although the Owls made a better fist of things in the first 15 minutes of the second half the contest was descending into a farce due to the conditions.
Stuart Gray remains in temporary charge of the Owls and has no fresh injury or suspension issues. Joe Mattock and Giles Coke have returned to training following short injury lay-offs and could come back into contention.
Bournemouth travel north without goalkeeper Darryl Flahaven who recently injured a thumb in training. Elliott Ward and Mohamed Coulibaly are closing in on returns following injury lay-offs but are not expected to feature at Hillsborough.
Wednesday have improved somewhat since the recent departure of manager Dave Jones, winning 2 out of their last 3 games under the caretaker charge of Stuart Gray.
Bournemouth enjoyed a 2-1 victory at Reading in their last away game but that is their only win in their last 9 matches.
The Owls have only enjoyed 1 win over Bournemouth in 8 league meeting but that victory did come in their last encounter when Wednesday recorded a 3-0 win in March 2012.