Wolves rocked by twin injury blow
Wolves have suffered a double blow as Richard Stearman and Andrew Surman look like being sidelined for several weeks. Wolves have suffered a double blow as Richard Stearman and Andrew Surman look like being sidelined for several weeks. Stearman has had X-rays after fears he had broken his ankle in training, while Surman has twisted his knee in the countdown to tomorrow's home clash with Fulham. Manager Mick McCarthy was bitterly disappointed at the twin setback. "Andrew has twisted his knee and Richard had X-rays on his ankle because we thought we might have fractured it but he hasn't, he's got a real swelling just above it," said the boss. "So he'll be out for a considerable time - weeks I'd think. It's really disappointing because they were fit and they were going to be in the squad. Read the full story in today's Shropshire Star
Stearman has had X-rays after fears he had broken his ankle in training, while Surman has twisted his knee in the countdown to tomorrow's home clash with Fulham.
Manager Mick McCarthy was bitterly disappointed at the twin setback.
"Andrew has twisted his knee and Richard had X-rays on his ankle because we thought we might have fractured it but he hasn't, he's got a real swelling just above it," said the boss.
"So he'll be out for a considerable time - weeks I'd think. It's really disappointing because they were fit and they were going to be in the squad.
"I'm especially disappointed for Richard because he's been in great form. It was just a tackle, nothing malicious and he went over on it."
McCarthy's mood is at least slightly tempered by the return of Michael Kightly (hip and foot), Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (hamstring) and Kevin Foley (knee), who have all trained fully this week.
"Kightly and Sylvan will be on the bench, and Kev's in the squad too, but he hasn't had a game for a long time," he added.
But McCarthy discounted Jody Craddock's chances of returning against Fulham from his hamstring problem. "Jody hasn't got a chance - not for Fulham anyway," he said.
Up front, McCarthy was impressed with the impact of 6ft 7ins-plus Austrian striker Stefan Maierhofer for his goalscoring debut in last week's 3-1 defeat at Blackburn.
But the Wolves chief has cautioned against him starting against Fulham.
"He's still only had a week's training with us but he's done well," said the boss. And McCarthy has resisted any urge to make huge changes.
"If I wanted to make wholesale changes then this weekend would have been perfect to do it, because the performance after the first 18 minutes was really poor - there was nothing in it," he said. "But I'm not going to judge all those players on that one first-half."
