Wolves boosted by Kevin Doyle fitness return

Wolves were today boosted by the return to fitness of Kevin Doyle and Richard Stearman.

Manager Mick McCarthy has confirmed both players will be fit for Sunday's crunch game against a Sunderland team left managerless by yesterday's sacking of Steve Bruce.

Doyle and Stearman's availability means McCarthy has four players back for the Molineux showdown, with Jamie O'Hara and Stephen Hunt back from suspension.

But in-form midfielder Karl Henry misses out with a one-match ban after his fifth booking in the 3-0 defeat at Chelsea last Saturday. Doyle hasn't trained fully yet because of the knee injury that kept him out of the Chelsea game.

But he was expected to step up his workload with the physios today with a view to joining the rest of his team-mates over the next two days.

And the Ireland international may well resume his partnership with joint three-goal top scorer Steven Fletcher. The pair haven't played together since the 2-1 home defeat to Newcastle seven games ago.

But with McCarthy having identified Sunday's clash as one of '12 must-win' fixtures, they are expected to be reunited in a 4-4-2 formation.

Stearman has already trained with a carbon fibre cast protecting his broken wrist sustained in the 2-1 defeat at Everton two weeks ago and is expected to replace Ronald Zubar, who made his return from nine months out at Stamford Bridge.

Henry, meanwhile, has expressed his disappointment after being forced to sit out such a crucial game following his challenge on Ramires.

"I thought it was very harsh as I thought I won the ball," he said.

"I said to myself when I was on four bookings that I needed to keep my mouth shut and not do anything silly and get through to the end of December.

"Then lo and behold I get another yellow."