Sheffield Wednesday reserves beat Port Vale reserves 3-1 at Hillsborough on Tuesday night with some key players bidding to make a return and step up their fitness.
The news that can justifiably be described as unbelievable is that striker Francis Jeffers appears to have come through the game unscathed.
Given his recent injury record many Owls fans will be more surprised with this news than if it were reported that he had suffered yet another setback.
Jeffers was initially tipped to return from a long injury lay off some time during the first week or two of this new season but he sustained further niggling knocks to his preparations at that stage and as a result he it yet to appear for the first team in any games so far this campaign.
The former Everton and Arsenal frontman cost the club a large proportion of the player spending budget last summer and the continual injury setbacks have caused the frustrations of the fans to grow with his cause not helped by a fragile injury record throughout his career.
Due in part to this fact, the club took the decision to take the pressure away from the situation somewhat by refraining from discussing any further potential comeback dates in public recently and so it came as a bit of a surprise when he was named amongst the substitutes for yesterday evenings game.
Jeffers replaced Wade Small after around an hour of the game and looked fairly sharp considering the length of his lay-off and a subsequent lack of competitive games and he was heavily involved in the build up to two of the Owls goals.
Leon Clarke bagged himself a goal following a neat Jeffers assist and it is he who is more likely to be involved in the squad for Saturday's game against Watford at Hillsborough than Jeffers, although the Owls will also be waiting upon the return of Deon Burton from international duty. Burton has had a hectic schedule at this early stage of the season and has looked understandably jaded in a couple of games.
However, with a number of midweek fixtures to add to the usual weekend games coming up in the next month or so, now would be an ideal time for Jeffers to make a return to the fold.
Before being replaced by Jeffers, Wade Small-making his own comeback from injury having also not seen any first team action yet this season looked lively and notched the first goal of the game.
Out-of-favour midfielder Kenny Lunt scored the Owls' third goal before the visitors registered a late consolation strike.