Kevin Doyle was today backed by boss Mick McCarthy to emerge from his exile and become Wolves’ talisman again.

The £6.5m striker gets the chance to shine once more tonight in the FA Cup third round replay at home to Birmingham, after being on the bench in four of the last five Premier League outings.

Doyle partners Sylvan Ebanks-Blake as nine-goal top scorer Steven Fletcher is rested, with the Premier League derby against Villa at Molineux only three days away.

But McCarthy vowed the Republic of Ireland international, who has only scored twice this season, will come back just as strong.

The Wolves boss said: “Throughout a career, you can’t continue to be that talisman all of the time.

“It needed someone to take a bit of pressure off him because he was playing up front on his own last season and he had a knee injury early on in the campaign.

“Those things contributed to it and it just hasn’t gone right for him.

“But what we know about Doyle is he was our star man for a while, he’s talented and he’ll come back.”

McCarthy has had talks with the 28-year-old.

He said: “I have spoken to Doyle and he’s cool with it. He’s low maintenance and he gets on with it.”

And McCarthy believes the former Reading hitman can benefit from his time out.

The manager said: “There’s always that hope from everyone, including himself.

“He will certainly be fresher, although there’s an argument that, if you are playing every week, you feel great anyway.

“But he’s had a lot of football and a knee injury, which he had a difficult time with.

“You hope that. when he does come back. that he’s as fresh as anything and plays that way and gets a goal, because he just needs one to drop for him.

“He does everything possible for the team but, at times, you just need a break as well.”

Meanwhile, Sam Vokes is awaiting developments after returning to Wolves after completing three months on loan at Burnley.

McCarthy said: “There are plenty of people who want two or three of ours on loan but I’ll wait and see.

“I need to see what can we do and if we do something then great but, if we don’t, we’re cool with what we’ve got because we’ll be fine.”

See also:

• Mick McCarthy blast for red card gestures
• Scoring record is target for hot-shot Steven Fletcher
• Steven Fletcher is a class act to Wolves boss