Wolves Head of High Performance Phil Hayward has provided the latest on Rodrigo Gomes and Matt Doherty.
The African Cup of Nations is on the horizon, and Wolves are going to be hit hard by departures for the tournament.
As such, having the remaining players at full fitness is vital, especially considering the uphill battle that faces whoever assumes the role of manager.
That’s why the news of Rodrigo Gomes’ groin surgery was devastating. He’s one of the top performers at the club this season, and his absence will hurt.
Matt Doherty also picked up a knock against Chelsea, and Hayward has forecasted the road to recovery for the Irishman.
Rodrigo Gomes injury broken down by Wolves chief
Hayward is the man to ask when it comes to the health and fitness of the Wolves squad.
That makes his opinion the most relevant one you can find, and he has some (relatively) good news about the 22-year-old’s groin surgery.
He says: “So, yeah, had the surgery yesterday, went really well. It’s never that easy to give accurate timeframes at such an early point. But we have a general kind of timeframe that we’re working towards based on what we know to be the norm for this kind of surgery.
“Sort of ballpark around the 8 to 12 week mark. You know, things go really well, maybe towards the early side of that, but obviously, always being cautious not to push too quickly.”
Initial reports on Gomes suggested up to four months on the sideline, but Hayward is a bit more optimistic after a seamless procedure.
Hopefully, he’s right, but Wolves will be without Gomes for AFCON even in the best scenario.
That increases the importance of his following update.
Phil Hayward on Matt Doherty’s injury
The Irishman was already dealing with an injury before this latest knock. Doherty had surgery on his wrist at the start of October, and is still not fully healed.
But this new knee injury was an even bigger worry, especially with Gomes out for a while.
Hayward reveals: “Matt injured his right knee during the game against Chelsea, so a very low-grade medial collateral ligament injury. So basically the ligament on the inside of the knee that connects the femur to the tibia and stops the lower leg from going out to the side, so to speak.
“Yeah, just stretched that out a little bit. So fairly minor, but we’ll definitely keep him out for a couple of weeks, unfortunately.”
A couple of weeks is certainly more manageable for Doherty, and that coincides with the upcoming international break.
Wolves have enough problems without the squad being weakened, but Hayward and his team will be working hard to get these players back in action as soon as possible.