Mick McCarthy believes injury to Wolves wingers Michael Kightly or Matt Jarvis is as serious as Manchester United coping without Cristiano Ronaldo or Liverpool without Fernando Torres.Wolves missed out on a play-off spot last season after Kightly and Jarvis missed 25 and 20 League games respectively through injury, while they started just three matches together.

Boosted by the excellent form of their two fit wingers this season, Wolves have soared to the top of the Championship on a wave of goals and attacking football.

McCarthy admitted that any absence now could be damaging to their promotion hopes.

“We haven’t got two Jarvises and two Kightlys, so if one of them is injured, we have to deal with that,” said the boss.

“But they’re not, so they’re alright. I don’t think we should pre-empt it.

“If Manchester United are missing Cristiano Ronaldo, or if Torres is out for Liverpool, who replaces them?

“I know they put another player in, but it probably won’t be like for like.

“And if you analyse it, if I had two Kightlys and two Jarvises, there would be two of them thoroughly fed up because they wouldn’t be playing and probably not even on the bench.”

McCarthy revealed he would consider playing a different way if he lost either winger.

“It’s very hard to have two players of that level,” he said. “What I’ve got is good players such as Mickey Gray, Stephen Ward and Andy Keogh, who can play wide wide – that’s what the squad’s for.

“Mark Davies was earmarked as one of the wide players, as is Keogh and Mickey, so that’s my cover.

“Keogh can play wide right as he has proved. He’s different class – he’s been superb for me.

“He puts a shift in and he’s been fantastic.”