Jon Dahl Tomasson is constantly assessing John Buckley's situation at Sheffield Wednesday as Blackburn Rovers consider whether to recall him in January.

The midfielder joined the Owls on a season-long loan on transfer deadline day. It was a move that Tomasson didn't want to go through but was necessary due to the financial restrictions on the club.

Buckley had been used sparingly by Tomasson in the opening weeks of the season and was the fifth choice in the central midfield pecking order. The homegrown talent wanted to play regular football and so a move was granted.

Since then, Rovers' injury issues have mounted. Whilst they have avoided any long-term issues to their four regular midfielder, Joe Rankin-Costello now faces three months on the sidelines with a hamstring injury, depleting their options.

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As a result, Tomasson was asked if any discussions had taken place over Rovers activating their options to recall Buckley in January. However, he said it was too early for a decision to be made but they are constantly assessing his progress.

"It's very early days, the January market is not open yet," Tomasson told The Lancashire Telegraph. "We have contact with John.

"I always have one of the staff, Damien Johnson, who takes control of that. We are analysing John's games when he is starting and when he is coming from the bench.

"I have a personal contact with him in that way. It's the same whenever you loan players out, the same with Jack (Vale) at Lincoln.

"You always need to have that connection with the player, to give them a good feeling and to see if he's doing well, is he doing what he wants? 

"For John, it is a difficult situation at Sheffield Wednesday. It's a difficult situation for Sheffield Wednesday as a club."

Buckley has made five Championship starts for Wednesday, with five more appearances coming from the substitute bench. However, he has only started one of new manager Danny Rohl's five games in charge.

The midfielder has often been used as an attack-minded midfielder. He was used on the left in a 4-2-3-1 when he arrived from the bench against Millwall at the weekend, with the Owls already 4-0 down.

With captain Barry Bannan, George Byers and Jeff Hendrick seemingly ahead of him in central midfield, it will be interesting to judge if Rovers view Hillsborough as the best place for his development, regardless of their own injury problems.

On the decision to loan Buckley, Gregg Broughton said in September: "John is a player we have invested in heavily, we gave him a new long-term contract and he is a player we fully believe in as a football club.

“He's a player that was knocking on the door not only saying, 'I want to be in the squad but I deserve to be starting games'. 

"Something had to give and we felt John should go out on loan. We are delighted that is a Championship loan and it was also vital that we had a January recall."