Coventry City have suffered an unfortunate injury blow with the news that skipper Ben Sheaf could be out for up to six weeks.

The Sky Blues midfielder suffered a calf strain at Carrow Road last time out, forced off the field just after the hour when he was replaced by Josh Eccles – the player most likely to be asked to step up in his absence.

Providing an update on his squad ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup third round match with Sheffield Wednesday at the CBS Arena, head coach Frank Lampard revealed: “Ben’s unfortunately had a muscle injury against Norwich, so he’s going to be out for some weeks, probably between four to six weeks, possibly, which is unfortunate because obviously what Ben is as a player.

“He’s the captain of the club and it was a busy period of games and we rely on Ben a lot. It can happen to any player at any time over busy periods, unfortunately, so we will support Ben as much as we can. I saw him this morning and he was very positive straight away in terms of his rehab. He won’t be out long and in that time it’s an opportunity for others.”Put to him that Sheaf has not had a lot of luck with injuries over the last couple of seasons, Lampard said: “Yeah at times, but an impact injury at the start of the season, that can happen. But he churns out a lot of games as well. He’s a good player and everyone around the club knows that, so I think people can make too much of that. He’s a good player who has played a lot of games and he really cares about this club and wants to do well for us. So I have absolutely no problem with that.”

He added: “I was fortunate in my career but I also suffered periods of in/out. Every player does to the degree and that’s what it is, so we support him to get him back. We know we’re missing him, as well as Hadji and Ephron – big players for us – so it puts a different slant on it for us in terms of challenges that you get in football as a manager and as a team and as a squad, and other players have to step up to find the best solution to get us as strong as we can without those important players.”Giving an update on Wright and Mason-Clark, he said: “Haji is not back on the grass yet. It’s a difficult injury, an impact and we’re just making sure he’s comfortable before he goes out. So he’s actually been in this week doing a lot of cardio and doing what he can. So I haven’t got a clear date for you on that before he gets on the grass. With Ephron he was always going to be around six weeks and we’re two weeks into that.”

As for goalkeeper Ben Wilson, who has been out for three months with a knee ligament injury, he added: “He had a little bit of a pain/feeling last week and had to step off it for a couple of days but now he’s back in with us so that’s where we’re at.”

Meanwhile, Tatsuhiro Sakamoto has been given the all-clear, with the City boss concluding: “He took his bang against Cardiff and was back on the bench against Norwich, so he’s okay. He’s played a lot of games and you ask a lot of wingers, the way we have been playing. “We played with the back three last week as a bit of a necessity with the squad but also viewing the opponent, but when the wingers are playing you ask a lot of them, so he needs to be fresh as well.”