Wolves' Joe Hodge ruled out for two months with shoulder injury
Wolves midfielder Joe Hodge has been ruled out for at least two months after requiring surgery on his shoulder.
The 21-year-old, who recently admitted he was unhappy at his game time before Gary O'Neil publicly insisted he is in his plans, has had surgery on the ongoing issue.
He is expected to be out for around 'eight to 12 weeks', in another injury blow after Hodge's hamstring strain earlier in the season.
“Hodgey has had surgery on his shoulder," O'Neil said.
"It’s been ongoing for a while, he had an issue with it coming out too many times over the past few weeks in training, disrupting him, so we took the opportunity to get that fixed.
"Hopefully that’s him in a slightly better place. He’ll be missing for a while."
When asked for a timeline on Hodge's return, O'Neil added: "I can give you a rough guide from my limited knowledge on shoulder surgeries and I would guess somewhere from eight and 12 weeks.
"But he only had it done a day or two ago, so it's still early. It was good to see him this morning and he was in good spirits now it's fixed and he feels he's on the mend. Hopefully we can get him back as soon as possible."
Meanwhile, Jean-Ricner Bellegarde could return from his slight calf strain tomorrow against Newcastle.
O'Neil said: "Bellegarde’s doing well, we’ll have to see how he is tomorrow morning, but hopefully he can be involved. He hasn’t had a full week’s training, so he’s unlikely to do all 90."
