Garry Monk has confirmed that Steven Fletcher will be ruled out for a period of eight to 10 weeks.
The Owls top scorer sustained a knee injury during the FA Cup success away at Brighton last weekend.
Initial fears at The Amex were that the 32-year-old may be out for the rest of the campaign but scans have shown the extent of the damage to be less severe.
Nevertheless, Fletcher will be sidelined for the next two months and Monk said:
“Our initial thoughts were, when you looked at his reaction and how it was, it was very serious.
“He’s had the scan and it’s good and bad news really. As I said, it looked as though it could be a really serious one but the scan has come back and structurally his knee is fine.
“But he will be out for a significant period of time, roughly around eight to 10 weeks so it’s a blow for us, to lose any player is a blow but particularly your top goalscorer, who’s in such good form.
“So it’s bittersweet really in the sense that it could have been a season-ender but it’s a significant period out.
“It’s always unfortunate when it’s something so innocuous, something you do thousands of times in training and hundreds of times in a game. I’ve spoken to him about it and it looks to be the way he’s landed on the other player’s foot that has left him in an awkward position.
“I’ve had a good chat with him, he’s experienced, he’s a real professional and understands what he needs to do. He’ll be focused and give himself the best opportunity to be back as soon as possible.
“He’s already on with his re-hab, he’s on course for having his best ever season in terms of goal tally and I think he would have smashed that with the way he was going on about his work.
“He’ll still have time to beat that when he comes back.”