Sasa Kalajdzic has endured a very tough past year, after joining Wolves from Stuttgart.
The 26-year-old joined Wanderers in the summer of 2022, with Wolves paying around £15 million to the Bundesliga club for his services.
There was a great deal of optimism about his signing.
Wolves had struggled to score goals, and there was a feeling that Kalajdzic could really help the team.
Especially because at the time, Raul Jimenez had been injured and Fabio Silva had been loaned out.
But Kalajdzic would have a nightmare debut, suffered an ACL injury towards the end of the first-half.
It’s been a long road to recovery for Kalajdzic, and it’s one that he is very much still on.
But he’s getting there – and last night he took another big step towards returning to 100% fitness…
Wolves striker Sasa Kalajdzic plays 80 minutes for Austria – his highest minutes in a game this season
Last week, Kalajdzic played for Austria for the first time since suffering his ACL injury, getting 24 minutes against Belgium.
That was lovely moment for him, and another step on his journey to full fitness.
But last night, Kalajdzic somewhat surprisingly played 80 minutes of a 1-0 win over Azerbaijan.
The game was only a friendly. But this is the most amount of minutes in a game Kalajdzic has managed since the start of the new season.
For Wolves, Kalajdzic has mostly gotten cameo appearances this term.
The most amount of minutes he’s played was the 62 he got against Blackpool in the Carabao Cup at the end of August.
He also got 61 in the game against Ipswich.
But in the Premier League, Kalajdzic has only made four substitute appearances – his 14 minutes against Aston Villa being his highest amount of pitch time so far.
O’Neil will be pleased
So Kalajdzic has now played his highest minutes in a single game so far.
O’Neil is surely going to be pleased that his striker has gone away with his national team and actually been able to feature a fair bit.
He seems to have come through unscathed, and hopefully this has been really good for getting his fitness up to scratch.
Kalajdzic had asked to be taken off against Ipswich as he was lacking fitness and sharpness.
That indicated there is still a way to go for the star before he becomes a Wolves regular.
But his international break has been positive, and hopefully it won’t be long now before he gains prominence at Molineux.