Wolves are set to take on Nottingham Forest on Saturday as Gary O’Neil updates fans on injury news ahead of the tie.
O’Neil has a chance to make it back-to-back Molineux victories on the weekend as Wolves host Forest.
A 1-0 victory over Burnley on Tuesday night returned the side to winning ways after defeats to Fulham and Arsenal. However, three points are expected again on the weekend as they take on the East Midlands side.
Forest are struggling in the Premier League and lost 5-0 last time out to Fulham. Manager Steve Cooper is under a high amount of pressure to get a result on Molineux or will risk getting sacked.
O’Neil will know this could add a bit of unpredictability to the game, therefore, he would have been hopeful of many of his first-teamers to return from injury.
Pedro Neto and Rayan Ait-Nouri have been out for the past couple of games while Jose Sa came off injured against Arsenal. Previewing the Forest clash, O’Neil gave an update on their situation.
Jose Sa injury latest
Sa will be back for Forest.
It was presumed that he would be back for the mid-week clash against Burnley, however, this wasn’t possible.
Dan Bentley has stood in for the time being and has done well. The ‘keeper is yet to concede a Premier League goal this season.
O’Neil will now face a tough decision on whether to stick or twist with his number two for the upcoming game.
“Jose Sa’s fine, back 100 per cent fit, so good news,” O’Neil told Wolves.
Expected return: Nottingham Forest (December 9)
Pedro Neto injury latest
Neto has been a big miss for Wolves since his injury.
The winger had been Wolves’ best player so far this season and collected seven Premier League assists. However, at the end of October, he was forced off against Newcastle with an injury.
Since then, progress has been good as the 23-year-old has slowly returned to fitness.
There were hopes that he would be back earlier but O’Neil remains positive about his progress.
Speaking to Wolves O’Neil said: “Pedro’s still working with the fitness coach. He’s upping the level of intensity and how much he can do.
“The plan probably is for him to do around one more week, maybe five days with the fitness coach and come back into the group to join us for some training. Then, he’ll be back available from then hopefully. Obviously, it’ll take a bit of time to build him up, but that’s the hope.”
Expected return: Chelsea (December 24)
Rayan Ait-Nouri injury latest
Another player who has been on form for Wolves this season. The Algerian really came into his own before coming off against Fulham.
His play against Spurs in particular was fantastic which has seen clubs like Chelsea look at the full-back.
His return to the starting XI is looking more positive by the day as O’Neil confirms that there has been delays in his recovery.
He said: “Rayan’s ankle is still a little bit sore, not progressed quite as quickly as we would have hoped, we were hoping he’d do the last two days training, but he didn’t manage to train yesterday and he only did a little bit today, so we’ll assess him again in the morning, but it’s probably likely that Rayan won’t be available tomorrow.”
Expected return: West Ham (December 17)