Manchester City – Wolverhampton Wanderers – Premier League – Etihad Stadium
Wolves manager Bruno Lage admits that even his players cannot say how ready they will be against Manchester United.
The squad battled a coronavirus outbreak that forced Arsenal’s trip to be postponed on Tuesday.
It came after the Watford Boxing Day visit was canceled after the Hornets were unable to field a team because of the virus.
Wolves head to Old Trafford on Monday – their first Premier League game since the 0-0 draw against Chelsea on December 19 – and Lage admits he doesn’t have to figure out who will be available just yet.
He said, “After 10 days without playing, it is difficult in your head to be ready to play. I spoke to a player and asked, “Are you ready to play?”
“He said, ‘I really don’t know’. After 10 days without games or training, you are slow to make the right decisions.
“If you take a second to decide, the other team will come and push. You need to educate and adapt as soon as possible.
“They are coming (back), so it will be important in the next few days to understand which players are fit to play.
“There is nothing new, but now we need to understand if the players have time to relax and are ready to play.
“We still have two days to understand which players are fit and ready to play this important game.
“We don’t have a lot of cases, but we have a small squad, (if) four or five players (with Covid) and after that we don’t have any players to play with.”
Jonny (knee), Pedro Neto (knee), Hwang Hee-Chan (thigh), Yerson Mosquera (thigh) and Willy Boly (calf) are definitely out, while Rayan Ait-Nouri is struggling with groin problems.
Wolves were forced to close their training grounds for two days, but Lage remains philosophical about the situation.
“We are closed on the 26th and 27th, some have symptoms, some don’t. They try to do little things, but they still can’t do too much, ”he said.
“We didn’t play Watford because of Covid in Watford and then (against Arsenal) because of us. We can’t blame anyone, we have to play our game because that can happen. “
