Future of Owls Trio in Doubt as Sheffield Wednesday Announces Retained List

Sheffield Wednesday’s retained players have been confirmed by the English Football League, and it’s raised questions over three of them.

The Owls announced their own retained list for both the senior team and the academy last month, revealing who would and wouldn’t still be at Hillsborough come the start of the 2025/26 campaign.

Neither raised too many eyebrows as it was confirmed that a number of players would be moving on when their current deals expired, while it was also confirmed which youngsters would be sticking around as well.

Now, with the EFL making the submitted list public, the Owls are shown to have 31 players for the season ahead, but there remains an asterisk of sorts next to three of them – Rio Shipston, Favour Onukwuli and George Brown.

Sheffield Wednesday’s retained list

The full list as revealed by the league is as follows:

Killian Barrett, Di’Shon Bernard, George Brown, Bailey-Tye Cadamarteri, Nathaniel Chalobah, Pierce Charles, Sean Fusire, Djeidi Gassama, Svante Ingelsson, Dominic Iorfa, Reece Johnson, Donald Kamwa, Olaf Kobacki, Gui Siqueira, Jamal Lowe, Max Lowe, Mackenzie Maltby, Charlie McNeill, Devlan Moses, Anthony Musaba, Favour Onukwuli, Gabriel Otegbayo, Liam Palmer, Jack Phillips, Rio Shipston, Michael Smith, Jarvis Thornton, Ike Ugbo, Yan Valery, Bruno Fernandes and Josh Windass.

Next to the names of Shipston and Onukwuli’s names is an (o), which indicates ‘players who are under the age of 24 years, whose current contracts expire on 30th June 2025 and to whom the club has made an offer of reengagement’, suggesting that neither has signed new deals at Hillsborough yet. While Brown’s name is accompanied by an (m), which ‘indicates players under 24 years of age who were employed on a monthly contract as at 17th May 2025’. All three were noted as players who ‘remain under contract’ in the club’s retained list.