Wolves boss Mick McCarthy is keeping his fingers crossed that he will not see another international hangover from his team when they return to action against Everton.

After the last international break, Wolves produced their worst performance of the season in losing 3-1 at Blackburn Rovers on September 12.

Having lost their last two Premier League games against Sunderland and Portsmouth, McCarthy knows his side have to hit the ground running at Goodison Park tomorrow to get their season back on track.

He said: “I hope that there is a difference this time. But how can I prevent what happened then? There is no easy way around it.

“After the first 18 minutes at Blackburn it was less than good. I have to say it was really poor.

“We didn’t start badly in the game but as soon as they scored everything changed about the team.

“I’d have liked to have had all of the players here for two weeks, but they weren’t so there’s no point whinging about it and we just have to get on with things.”

McCarthy had Wayne Hennessey, Christophe Berra, Kevin Foley, Andy Keogh, Kevin Doyle, Dave Edwards, Nenad Milijas, Stefan Maierhofer and Segundo Castillo away with their countries.

Former Republic of Ireland boss McCarthy thinks that changing when the international games are played would help club managers.

He would prefer to see the first international played on a Wednesday or a Thursday and the second on the following Saturday or Sunday to give the players more time back at their clubs.

McCarthy added: “Perhaps you should play Wednesday and Saturday or even Wednesday, Sunday.

“It is really for us to discuss. But it would make things a lot easier for the clubs.

“However, I can see things both sides because I have been an international manager.

“But I have got Segundo flying in from South America and he is going to be feeling terrible when he gets back after 12 hours on a plane.”

McCarthy is set to make changes to his side for the trip to Goodison Park.

Winger Michael Kightly and striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake are both pushing to return to the starting line-up after injury problems.

Kightly has not started a first-team game since March following hip and foot problems.

But he is now fully match fit, as is Ebanks-Blake whose last start was on the opening day of the season against West Ham United when he suffered a hamstring strain.