Charlton’s trip to Sheffield Wednesday midweek may be boosted by the fact the Owls may be missing key duo Steven Fletcher and Morgan Fox.

Both players made cameo appearances for Garry Monk’s men from the bench in their 3-3 outing at Birmingham on the weekend, but the manager revealed both are well short of fitness.

Fletcher, who was operator-in-chief in Wednesday’s 3-1 win over the Addicks at The Valley in August when he scored a brace, is still yet to fully recover knee injury picked up in early January, while Fox only made his return after four games out at the weekend.

“Foxy and Fletch are not fully fit at all,” Monk said.

“The way we are with the couple of injuries we have had, where we are at and what we need to do, we have been forced into that situation.

“If we were in a better position in terms of the results we have had recently you would be able to give them a little bit longer. They are not fully fit but it’s needs must.”

Fletcher has become an influential player for Monk, scoring 12 goals this term which gave the Owls an outside chance to gatecrash the play-offs. It’s no coincidence that their top-six hopes hit problems during the former Sunderland man’s absence.

Despite his importance, Monk insisted he won’t rush Fletcher back and a place on the bench for Lee Bowyers visit is most likely for the 32-year-old.

“For Fletch, yes. He’s only been training for three days," Monk continued.

“He was a big part, a massive part of the reason why we were third at Christmas and then to lose him…it’s no excuse, we haven’t done well enough in the period we have had but today was much better all-round performance.”

That draw at Birmingham left Wednesday with just one win in their last 11 league games, dropping them to 12th in the league, 11 points off the play-off places, and now just six ahead of the Addicks who picked up a crucial win over strugglers Luton on Saturday.