Gary O’Neil has cast doubt on Sasa Kalajdzic starting against Manchester United for Wolves tomorrow night, admitting the striker was tiring towards the end of the first two training sessions he put on.
Wolves fans are really looking forward to watching the Austria international this season.
The star suffered an ACL injury on his debut last term against Southampton.
He did not play again, as he worked hard on his recovery, which was documented by the club.
But Kalajdzic is back fit again now, and he has featured a few times in pre-season.
But those hoping he could start against United tomorrow night may be disappointing given some comments O’Neil has made about him.
Gary O’Neil says Sasa Kalajdzic was tiring in recent training sessions
O’Neil had his first press conference on Friday, and gave an assured performance in front of the media.
It was there where he spoke about Kalajdzic and what his potential involvement will be like.
He admitted (via Wolves official): “He’s worked very hard for two days and he probably found the end of both sessions a bit tough, and started to tire towards the end, which is to expect when he’s had two really tough injuries that he’s had to recover from and it’s still early in the process of him coming back. But he will be monitored daily and weekly and see where we can get him to.
“I’ve not put real thought into whether he will start or whether he will last 90. But do I think he’s usable and can get something out of him – definitely. But he’s given absolutely everything for two days so we’ll keep working with him, he looks keen, he looks like he wants to impact it.
“So, we’ll speak to the fitness coaches and see where he is because we have his best interests at heart as well. It’s not just about throwing him in before he’s ready, so we need to make sure he’s in a safe area fitness-wise and then we can push him hard.”
A chance for Fabio Silva?
These comments may well be music to Fabio Silva’s ears.
The young striker has come back to Wolves in pre-season and looked pretty sharp.
If Kalajdzic isn’t quite fully match fit/sharp, then O’Neil might be inclined to give Silva more minutes in the early stages of the season.
And this would be a fairly popular decision by the new manager.
A lot of Wolves supporters really want Silva to be given a chance, and he has shown a good understanding with Matheus Cunha in recent weeks.