Wolves are preparing to face Chelsea in the Premier League this weekend, but the squad will not include Rodrigo Gomes or Matt Doherty.
Amid the club continuing the search for a new manager, word arrived yesterday about Rodrigo and Doherty after they recently picked up injuries.
Both players sustained their injuries during the Carabao Cup game with Chelsea last week.
Doherty lasted around 20 minutes of the contest before being withdrawn and replaced by Rodrigo. Rodrigo then suffered a groin injury, and was taken off himself at half-time.
The severity of the issues for both players has now been shared. Rodrigo Gomes is set to miss the rest of the calendar year after having surgery, and Doherty will be out for at least two weeks. But with another international break coming up, the Irishman shouldn’t miss too much football.
It’s bad news for Wolves to lose the duo – but it does now mean a window of opportunity for Jackson Tchatchoua.
Jackson Tchatchoua clear to nail down Wolves starting spot
Tchatchoua has had an interesting start to life at Wolves.
The Cameroon international was Wolves’ fourth signing of the summer, arriving at the club from Hellas Verona for around £10 million.
It is known that Tchatchoua was not Wolves’ first-choice target for a new right-back, but hopes were still high for him and fans were especially excited to watch him given he was the fastest player in Serie A last season. Following that, Tchatchoua has already become the fastest player recorded in the Premier League this season.
Thus far, he has unfortunately lacked consistency for Wolves.
He’s made 11 appearances so far, but only five of those have been starts, with four coming in the Premier League. For the last two games, Vitor Pereira picked Ki-Jana Hoever ahead of him.
So it’s clear that he had not really wholly convinced the previous manager.
But now, it looks as though he’ll certainly start against Chelsea this weekend, and potentially games against Crystal Palace and Aston Villa after the international break if Doherty still isn’t back.
Rodrigo is out of the picture for the foreseeable, and Hoever just has not impressed. So this is very much a golden opportunity to make that right-back position his own.
He’s had time to settle in now, and has to start turning in more consistent displays – and also start taking advantage of that blistering pace a bit more.
Rodrigo Gomes injury news is an especially big blow for Wolves
The news that Rodrigo is set to miss the rest of the calendar year is a huge blow for Wolves.
It has been an awful season in which a lot of players have underperformed. But Rodrigo is one of only a few who can actually hold their head high.
In the games he’s played, Rodrigo has always been lively and has shown a hunger to make things happen.
He’s helped himself to two goals so far, and marked himself out to be a threat. Currently, Wolves are lacking threats, and players who can deliver in the final third.
Wolves have a creativity issue right now and so far this season, Rodrigo has made 10 shot-creating actions (2.70 per 90, via fbref). Simply put, the team need their sparks to be playing, and he is one of them.
Hopefully, we will now see some more creativity from Tchatchoua (current SCA metric of just 1.47 per 90) if he is trusted by whoever is overseeing the team.