It has certainly been a tough past couple of years for Wolves striker Sasa Kalajdzic.
The Austria international was signed by Wolves in the summer of 2022 and was supposed to be the successor to Raul Jimenez, who had struggled following his head injury.
But pretty much from the get-go, Kalajdzic has been plagued with bad luck.
On his Wolves debut against Southampton, just days after signing, Kalajdzic suffered an ACL injury – which was the second of his professional career.
After gruelling rehab, he finally got himself fit ahead of the 2023/24 season. Then after struggling to get minutes under Gary O’Neil, Kalajdzic headed to Eintracht Frankfurt on loan.
But after only a handful of games, the injury curse struck again for Kalajdzic. He suffered yet another ACL injury and has been recovering ever since.
But O’Neil has now given an update on the player.
Wolves striker Sasa Kalajdzic set to resume full training in ‘three or four weeks’
Kalajdzic’s injury luck really has been terrible and he will be desperate to get back for Wolves to make an impact.
He cost £15 million from Stuttgart, and will undoubtedly want to try and prove his worth.
Kalajdzic has been on the grass at Compton since October, and O’Neil has now provided fans with an update on when he could rejoin his teammates.
The Wolves manager said (via E&S): “Sasa is doing very well on the grass and has been out there for a while now. He’s probably a few weeks away from re-joining the group.”
He’s going to need some time. He suffered one very serious injury and had to fight back from it, and then suffered another one.
“He’s three or four weeks away from training with the group and then he’s going to need a decent block of training with the group, and then the Premier League itself is very different from training.
“It will be a big ask for him to have a big impact this season but that will be his aim and that will be my aim, to push as hard as we can to get him in and around it.
“There’s still a lot of work for him to do.”
Kalajdzic could still have a part to play for Wolves
It sounds like we almost certainly won’t see the striker in 2024. Kalajdzic said he was hopeful of playing a game for Wolves in 2024, but the striker could still have an impact for Wolves this season.
One would imagine he will not be playing much even when he’s back fit again. Because O’Neil barely used him last season when he did have him available.
| Sasa Kalajdzic for Wolves (2022-present) |
| Appearances – 14 |
| Minutes played – 327 |
| Goals – 3 |
| Assists – 1 |
But Wolves do find themselves in a very precarious position and it’s possible a relegation battle looms.
At the end of the day, Kalajdzic is a unique striker and is someone who has the potential to get goals when Wolves are struggling to score in games. We have previously seen him bag important late goals against Everton and Bournemouth.
Goncalo Guedes is a January target for Villarreal and if he ends up leaving then this potentially opens the door for the 27-year-old.