Zubar is close to debut at Wolves

The 24-year-old defender, who was a £2.5m signing from Marseilles this summer, completed an impressive night's work in the reserves' 1-1 draw against Villa last night.

McCarthy believes the former France under-21 international is on the verge of selection after taking time to adjust to the tempo of the English game and the language barrier with consistently impressive performances in training.

The Wolves boss took the unusual step of dropping an early hint on team selection for the Goodison clash.

And it could be that the pacy stopper plays full-back after experience there with Marseilles and his first club Caen.

"Ronald has looked great in training - it might be that he's ready to play against Everton," said McCarthy.

"When he came here, it just didn't happen for him and he didn't look as sharp as he'd have wanted.

"He wasn't ready to play because if he was, I would have played him.

"But he's looking a helluva lot better now. He's training brilliantly and he looks a far, far better player.

"He's now looking like the player I bought when I signed him.

"The players in central defence haven't done badly, but as I said to the players, 'it doesn't matter how well people are doing, we can't keep losing games'.

"We've got a squad of players and Zubar played everywhere across the back four at Marseilles - right-back, left-back and centre-back - he can play them all."

McCarthy has long maintained that foreign players can take six months to settle in the Premier League.

But Zubar has improved so sharply that he's being considered for his Premier League debut after just one start so far, in the Carling Cup tie against Swindon.

By TIM NASH