Championship club announce signing of recently departed Man Utd defender

Sheffield Wednesday have confirmed the signing of ex-Manchester United defender Di’Shon Bernard.

The 22-year-old was released by the Red Devils at the end of last season and has been without a club since the beginning of July. But Wednesday confirmed the signing on Monday night, with Bernard possibly available for the Championship season opener against Southampton on Friday.

Bernard, who came through the youth ranks at United, made one senior appearance when he played 90 minutes in a Europa League defeat to Astana in 2019. Since then, the centre-back has spent time on loan at Salford City, Hull City and Portsmouth, before his contract expired this summer.

Wednesday said via their website that the club beat off ‘stiff competition’ to sign Bernard, who has earned four caps for Jamacia. Meanwhile, manager Xisco described the ex-United youngster as a player who has ‘big potential’.

“It’s a perfect situation today,” he told Radio Sheffield. “We have another player, we have another to try and help guys this season. I’m very happy with Di’Shon, I know about him and he has big potential for us. It’s one step more, and we need to keep on moving every day."

Asked if Bernard could play for Wednesday against Southampton, Xisco said: “Right now we’ve spoken with him, and he’s had some testing in the training around. We need to know exactly how fit he is, it’s true he played with the national team two or three weeks ago, and maybe he is not 100 percent fit but maybe has very good condition - we need to check him and put out our strongest XI on Friday.”

Wednesday secured promotion back to the Championship last season, via the play-offs. But the Owls have endured a difficult summer with the departure of manager Darren Moore, and had only completed four signings prior to the arrival of Bernard.