WOLVES WILL COPE WITH LOSS OF INJURIES Captain Sam Ricketts today insisted Wolves’ squad is strong enough to cope with the opening day spate of injuries. Kenny Jackett’s young guns go to Morecambe in the Capital One Cup first round tomorrow night almost certainly without three of their most experienced players, after Richard Stearman, Dave Edwards and George Elokobi all picked up knocks in Saturday’s opening 0-0 draw at Preston. Elokobi has hurt his groin, Stearman has a hamstring problem and Edwards has an ankle injury, the latter two caused after challenges by veteran Preston striker Kevin Davies. Jackett has all-but written off the trio’s chances of being fit for the second trip to Lancashire in three days. He said: “Tomorrow would look to be very quick in terms of turnaround for them to play, but I haven’t got a great idea at present as to how long they will be out. “We took 20 players to Preston – the 18 available and Ethan Landell and Anthony Forde. That working group now looks like it may be cut to 17.” But Ricketts believes the quality of the replacements mean the squad has the strength in depth to absorb the casualties. “You look at the players who came on – first of all George came on for Stearman, and he’s a very good player, then Kevin Foley came on, and he’s an Irish international, so I don’t really think it gets much better,” said Ricketts, who switched to centre-back alongside Danny Batth when Stearman was forced off in the 32nd minute. Jake Cassidy replaced Edwards as Wolves switched from a 4-4-1-1 formation to a more orthodox 4-4-2. Ricketts added: “It’s never ideal – it meant a few changes and we had to make three in the end which not only disrupted the rhythm of the side but also tactically, if the gaffer wanted to change anything, his hands were tied. “But all the lads who came on did really well and were ready. We were away from home and kept a fairly comfortable clean sheet – Carl Ikeme didn’t have any real saves to make.” Despite the defence looking thin on the ground for options and experience, it seems highly unlikely Jackett will bring Roger Johnson, Stephen Ward or Georg Margreitter back to the fold. Johnson and Ward were first banished to train with the Under-21s and now all three are training on their own with Jamie O’Hara, Kevin Doyle and Tongo Doumbia.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:40:42 +0000
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