'FOOTBALL FORTUNES CAN CHANGE SO FAST'

XISCO Munoz never explained why Marvin Johnson was expelled from Sheffield Wednesday’s squad last summer.

- Chris Dunlavy

And it needed explaining. Wing-back Johnson was the second-highest goal contributor in the entire squad when the Owls won promotion from League One under Darren Moore last season.

In July, a fortnight after Moore’s abrupt resignation, the 33-year-old penned a new deal to extend his stay at Hillsborough.

Then Xisco turned up. Within days, Johnson was ordered to train away from the first team, stripped of his squad number and omitted from the official 25-man roster submitted to the EFL - a situation made all the more mystifying considering the list contained only 24 names.

When pictures emerged of Johnson training alone in Dubai, ex-Watford boss Xisco admitted that he wasn’t even aware of the former Middlesbrough man’s whereabouts.

“I only talk about the players we have,” was his standard response to queries about Johnson’s future.

Eight months on, things couldn’t be more different. Flatlining under Xisco, Wednesday are resurgent in the hands of 34-year-old German Danny Rohl, who replaced the unpopular Spaniard in October and immediately ended Johnson’s exile.

Now, he is integral to a backline that - ahead of Friday’s home fixture with Leeds - had kept four clean sheets in their previous six games, five of which ended in victory. Was this even imaginable during those long, lonely days in the desert?

“No, but to be honest I didn’t want to look that far,” say Johnson, who pre-weeken had provided three goals and four assists since returning to the side in November.