Pedro Neto was forced off at half time in Wolves’ defeat to Newcastle United (Reuters)
Gary O’Neil has played down the severity of the injuries to Pedro Neto and Jose Sa after Wolves’ defeat to Newcastle United on Saturday.
Wolves’ three-game winning run in all competitions ended at St James’ Park as goals from Alexander Isak, Anthony Gordon and Tino Livramento sealed a deserved 3-0 victory for Newcastle.
Wolves were dealt a further blow at half time as both Neto and Sa were forced off due to injury.
However, O’Neil believes Neto, who has a hamstring complaint, and Sa, who injured his thigh, are both likely to recover quickly ahead of Wolves’ Premier League game at home to Fulham next Saturday.
‘Obviously missing good players doesn’t help, but the boys that played did some really good bits. But to be missing Cunha and Channy [Hwang] is one thing, then add Joao Gomes to that, then Sa and Pedro both off injured at half-time left us in the toughest position we’ve been in,’ O’Neil said after Wolves’ defeat to Newcastle.
‘I said this would be the toughest game of the season for us because of where we were, and what we’ve been through this week, and it turned out to be that. But in terms of a group willing to work, we looked like a really good side for a long spell when name-wise we were away from our best at this moment.
Hwang Hee-chan will be sidelined for six weeks with a hamstring injury (Getty)
‘Jose has a sore quad and they think he will be fine for next weekend. I don’t know if it was his quad that collided with the post, but he’s got some issue, so it may have been from that situation, but he’s confident he’ll be ok for next weekend.
‘Pedro has a tight hamstring and I don’t think there’s any injury there, it’s just tight. It was precautionary really.’
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O’Neil also confirmed Wolves will be without Hwang for six weeks due to the hamstring injury he suffered earlier this week.
‘Channy had a tight hamstring at half-time last week and wanted to carry on and hurt it, so Pedro, with a tight hamstring, we had no choice to make sure he was off and safe, and make sure we had enough to go again on another day,’ O’Neil said.
‘It’s approximately six weeks for Channy, which is obviously a disaster for where we are at this moment. Him and Cunha will probably be back around similar times, probably Cunha slightly earlier than Channy now, so losing Pedro today was far from ideal.
‘The situation has been discussed a lot around transfer windows, and we have the best injury record in the league which is why we’ve been able to remain competitive, but it’s really hard to sustain that over the course of a season. We’re in a tough spell where we have injuries to players, and we need to find a way.’
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