Wolves lost Pedro Neto to injury in the 2-2 draw with Newcastle United on Saturday – but Hwang Hee-chan believes the team can cope without the Portuguese winger.
Wanderers picked up a point against the Magpies at Molineux, showing good character to come from behind twice. Callum Wilson scored two goals in the first-half for the visitors, either side of a Mario Lemina equaliser.
His second goal was very controversial, with referee Anthony Taylor awarding a penalty against Hwang Hee-chan, which was upheld by the VAR.
Wolves did fight back to draw though with Hwang Hee-Chan scoring a brilliant goal, and Toti Gomes providing the assist.
One of the other sour notes of the game for Wolves was Pedro Neto picking up a hamstring injury. The player has said he faces a couple of weeks on the sidelines.
But Hwang feels there are some good options available to Gary O’Neil…
Hwang Hee-chan identifies three possible Pedro Neto replacements for Gary O’Neil at Wolves
Hwang spoke after the game and expressed his sadness about the injury to Neto.
This was before the player put out the update on social media. But it’s still a blow that the 23-year-old will be on the sidelines even for a fairly short period.
Hwang said (Express & Star): “We hope he’s OK because he’s such an important player for us, our thoughts are with him
“He’s an amazing player so it’s going to be very difficult to cover his performances.”
Hwang then offered the names of three Wolves players who might be in line to replace Neto.
“But we have many good players, such as Sasa (Kalajdzic), Fabio (Silva) and Pablo (Sarabia),” he added. “If you see us in training, you’d understand that our combinations are so good. It’s not just me, (Matheus) Cunha and Neto, but Sasa and Pablo all understand each other very well.
“So I think we have some players who can cover for Neto.”
We will now see what Wolves are made of without Neto
The fitness update Neto put out on Sunday was encouraging. Hamstring injuries have the potential to rule players out for months and so, the notion he’ll potentially only miss a handful of games is welcome news.
It will be very intriguing to see what O’Neil does to cover his absence.
Hwang is right – there are some good options to replace Neto, as big a loss as he will be.
May be this could be the time for Pablo Sarabia to come in and become the player Wolves fans expected him to. Since he arrived in January for just over £4 million, he has not lived up to expectations, but the 30-year-old may now get the nod to play from the right.