Wolves' Injury Nightmare!! | The Keen & Judah Show
In the very first episode of the new 'Keen and Judah show' the boys take an extended look into the club's current injury crisis.
Gary O'Neil provided updates on Matheus Cunha, Jeanricner Bellegarde, Craig Dawson, Hwang Hee-Chan and Pedro Neto following the defeat to Coventry.
Have Wolves just been terribly unlucky in the timing and severity of these injuries or could they have been prevented?
What is the realistic return timetable for their return and can they still mount a European challenge?
Or will the treatment room ultimately derail Wolves' excellent season?
The Keen & Judah show will broadcast every Monday on ShotsTV and Freeview Channel 276
Gary O'Neil provided updates on Matheus Cunha, Jeanricner Bellegarde, Craig Dawson, Hwang Hee-Chan and Pedro Neto following the defeat to Coventry.
Have Wolves just been terribly unlucky in the timing and severity of these injuries or could they have been prevented?
What is the realistic return timetable for their return and can they still mount a European challenge?
Or will the treatment room ultimately derail Wolves' excellent season?
The Keen & Judah show will broadcast every Monday on ShotsTV and Freeview Channel 276
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SportTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:06 Well, hello everybody.
00:08 I am Nathan Judah and next to me here, as ever,
00:11 is Wolverhampton Wanderer's extraordinaire for the Express and Star,
00:15 reporter Mr Liam Keane.
00:17 Keano, how's it going, my love?
00:20 Well, after the weekend, not quite as well as maybe it could have been,
00:23 but otherwise, you know, life's alright. It's not too bad, my friend. How are you?
00:27 I'm okay. It's going to take me a while.
00:29 But we've got to look at the positives.
00:30 The positives are it's Monday and we have got a brand new segment.
00:36 It is welcome to the first ever episode of The Keane and Judah Show.
00:43 Boom. Look at that.
00:44 I'll tell you what, it took hours of meetings to come to that title.
00:48 Hours of boardroom meetings, but we finally got to it.
00:52 The Keane and Judah Show, exclusively, by the way, on Shots TV and Freeview channel 276.
01:00 So, Liam, I know you want to ask me the next question.
01:02 What is The Keane and Judah Show?
01:04 Well, first of all, it is completely free.
01:08 You've got to click the link straight through to Shots and you'll be able to watch us
01:11 natter on every single Monday.
01:14 This is not going to replace the podcast.
01:17 That is further on later in the week as normal.
01:20 But this is some extra content for you guys at home to start the week.
01:25 Podcast normally, Keane, how much are we covering subject-wise in a podcast?
01:31 Maybe like 15, 20 subjects?
01:33 Easily.
01:34 Especially with a lot of the nonsense we go through as well.
01:36 Talking about our daily lives.
01:38 Which some people love and some people hate.
01:41 This is going to be basically a deep dive,
01:44 some more analysis on one specific subject to start the week.
01:49 Because we don't get a lot of time, of course.
01:51 We've got so many things to talk about later on in the week.
01:53 So this is nice.
01:54 It's going to be a great chance for me, for you, to talk about one specific subject
01:58 for 20 minutes, half an hour, 40 minutes.
02:01 And really just look into things that we may not be able to do later on in the week
02:06 when we've got so much stuff going on.
02:07 So I think it's going to be great.
02:08 Hopefully you're going to enjoy it.
02:10 Remember Shots TV and Freeview channel 276.
02:16 So the subject that we're going to discuss has changed quite rapidly.
02:20 Bit of a U-turn really.
02:22 We were going to discuss, well, this actual episode was going to be brought to you by the letter W
02:28 for Wembley.
02:32 But instead it's going to be brought to you by the letter I, which is injuries.
02:37 We're going to talk a lot about injuries today.
02:40 It's obviously a topic that a lot of fans are talking about.
02:45 Of course, Gary O'Neill has been talking about it.
02:48 We've got a lot of different takes, a lot of different opinions.
02:52 And I would say, Liam, to be honest, with the way that this season has gone and the hurdles that wolves
02:58 have overcome throughout this season, was this the first time, in my opinion it was,
03:07 where injuries cost wolves in this football game?
03:12 But not only that, the timing of it, it was the biggest game of the season.
03:17 And when you're making decisions, starting decisions and substitutions,
03:23 and you're looking at that bench, I feel like it all came and collapsed at the most important,
03:29 crucial moment.
03:31 Yeah, I have to agree, unfortunately.
03:34 The first thing I'll say is that once you're in that position, 2-1 up in the 96th, 97th minute,
03:40 regardless of injury, you don't lose that game.
03:42 So injuries don't directly impact that exact moment where wolves have thrown away two goals.
03:48 I think Gary O'Neill made the point that we didn't get a chance to bring another defender on
03:52 because he'd already taken Totte off.
03:54 And I can understand his argument there, but regardless of that, in that specific situation,
03:58 you don't let the game slip.
04:00 However, have wolves had a strong squad, or a fully fit squad, rather, with five very key players,
04:07 four of which would have started the game in the squad and fit and available,
04:13 then wolves probably win that game in 90 minutes and at the very least go through into extra time
04:19 and probably the quality prevails and they go through.
04:22 And we're talking about a Wembley trip right now.
04:24 So the injuries, albeit in hindsight, have played such a major part in wolves losing.
04:31 As you've described, the biggest game of the season is nothing but frustration from our point of view,
04:36 fans' point of view, and I'm sure Gary O'Neill is the most frustrated of them all
04:39 to not have the players he needs available to get him through what is a massive moment,
04:44 not just for wolves, but also for his very short managerial career so far.
04:48 Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it?
04:50 Look, Mart Robbins spoke about it in his post-match press conference.
04:54 They knew that wolves were struggling with injuries today.
04:56 And he pretty much admitted, actually, that if wolves had the likes of Pedro Neto, Cunha available,
05:03 that he wouldn't be sat there as the winning manager.
05:05 And to be honest, I think every single person in that room agreed,
05:09 Coventry won't care one bit.
05:11 And to be honest, why should they?
05:13 But it's obviously a huge topic.
05:17 Gary O'Neill has been pretty open with us this season regarding injuries.
05:22 And we're going to talk about timelines and stuff a little bit later on.
05:26 But for the first time before the Coventry game, we were sat at Compton Park, Liam, on Friday afternoon.
05:32 And he did something that we haven't seen, not just by Gary O'Neill, but pretty much any manager in recent times,
05:39 whether that be Lopetegui or Bruno Large or Nuno.
05:43 And he said, I'm not going to give you any injury news whatsoever.
05:47 I won't be speaking about injuries, which of course was the biggest topic going into this game.
05:53 And we obviously knew that Mateus Cunha was training.
05:56 That was evident. Wolves were putting out pictures.
06:00 He was putting out Instagrams and maybe that was a bit of a curveball, maybe to keep people second guessing.
06:05 And I'm sure from Gary O'Neill's point of view, it was to try and keep Coventry second guessing as well, going into his team selection.
06:12 But there hadn't really been an update on Neto, hadn't been an update on Bellegarde.
06:16 And you had the whole social media aspect where, oh, could this mean that all three might be available or two might be available?
06:23 And I guess it was there for confusion.
06:26 Gary O'Neill, even though he said he hadn't selected his team yet, I'm sure that press conference knew exactly who was available and exactly what team he was picking.
06:36 And of course, after the game, it becomes a huge talking point.
06:39 He said he was going to speak about how long these players were going to be.
06:43 So let's go through them. Mateus Cunha being the one that everybody hoped might have been on the bench was not.
06:50 What's the situation with him?
06:52 So fortunately with Mateus, who is obviously such a key player for Wolves, is that it's slightly better outlook for him regarding his injury.
07:02 So, of course, he was injured, hamstring injury on February 10th, muscle damage in the scan.
07:07 Certainly not a good outlook for him going forward.
07:11 And he is defied all the odds and looks set to hopefully be back in around seven weeks from when the injury happened,
07:18 which will be the Villa game coming up after the international break on March 30th.
07:23 And I think from the injury that was initially that initially happened to him and then the scan after that, Wolves will be quite shocked to have had him back within seven weeks.
07:34 I think that would be quite a remarkable feat for Mateus to have come back that quickly.
07:39 To not have him for the Coventry game was obviously frustrating, but I suppose unrealistic considering the damage that was caused.
07:47 And if all goes well over the next couple of weeks, of course, he isn't with the Brazil squad as well because of this injury and coming back from the rehab.
07:55 He will be available for Villa and you would imagine that means he's on the bench.
07:59 It'd be a massive shock to see him start that game.
08:01 But any return to the squad for that Villa game, which is such a massive fixture, will be a huge plus for Wolves and Gary Neal.
08:09 Jean-Richard Belagard, or JJ as they like to call him, what's his situation?
08:14 Again, one who was actually missed.
08:18 I know he's been playing out of position.
08:20 He's been playing in a nine.
08:21 He's not a nine.
08:22 But when you look at the team that they put out, that really could have helped in that situation.
08:27 But yeah, Belagard, what's the news on him?
08:30 Well, it was slightly innocuous, wasn't it, when he went down against Fulham with a knee injury.
08:35 And when you hear knee injury, it's always the fear that it's going to be some sort of ACL injury, which is the headline knee injury that puts people out for a long period of time.
08:48 There was no suggestion that it was an ACL when it first happened.
08:51 But there's always that concern amongst fans and staff when you see a player go down with a knee injury.
08:55 That's what's going to happen.
08:57 And clearly from the sort of rhetoric we've been getting from Gary O'Neill and the club is that they were concerned, I think is probably a fair word, as to the severity of this knee injury.
09:09 And they've been down a good hand on this one in particular, in that it's nowhere near as serious as they first feared.
09:17 Gary O'Neill has said potentially back for Villa, but if not just after that, I think if we're going to be more realistic, it's probably after the Villa game.
09:26 I think it's unlikely he's back for that one.
09:28 But you're looking at from when it first happened, which was, of course, just over a week ago, you're looking at around four to five weeks, which is a lot shorter than I think the initial fears were predicting.
09:40 So John-Richard Benlegarde will be back for, if not Villa, there's obviously Burnley midweek and then West Ham after that.
09:46 You would hope that West Ham into the following week might be more realistic for him.
09:50 But having him back sooner rather than later just adds to the options that Gary O'Neill has and hopefully, considering bad news, which we are coming to in a little bit with injuries, that is definitely a more positive outlook for the Benlegarde.
10:03 OK, Craig Dawson, the next one, I think we'll discuss one groin with him again, a little bit hopeful that he might have maybe played and boy, could they have done with him on Saturday, wasn't to be.
10:17 Yeah, he was described as 50/50 for the Fulham game.
10:21 So we were a little bit unsure going into this Coventry game whether Dawson would make it or not.
10:26 Of course, he didn't in the end. He was in attendance watching on, looked OK, sort of walking normally and around the place and looked happy.
10:34 But a groin injury is a bit of an awkward one, especially when he's a little bit older now as an experienced defender.
10:40 Gary again has described it as in contention for Villa if rehab goes well, which to me screams out of he's still very much 50/50 at this point.
10:48 So missed two games. Yes, it's a blow losing an experienced player like him.
10:54 But I think Sante Bueno was done by and large. OK, maybe Coventry aside for the majority.
11:00 And I don't think it's a desperate situation in defence for Wolves.
11:04 But you're looking at, again, contention for Villa if rehab goes well. But that to me, the wording there is.
11:12 Look, we're not 100 percent sure. It depends how he reacts.
11:15 And these next two weeks are going to be really telling for someone like Craig Dawson,
11:19 because as I say, a groin injury can be a little bit awkward at times, similar to hamstrings.
11:24 And if you don't react well in that rehab over the next couple of weeks before this Villa game, during this international break,
11:31 then you could see him out for a little bit longer. So it's one to one to watch on Craig Dawson,
11:36 probably the one out of all of them that is the most up in the air at the moment in terms of his return date.
11:41 OK, we'll discuss Wang He Chan. And of course, Pedro Neto will be right back after this short break.
11:46 All right.
11:48 And.
11:49 (upbeat music)