Timeline revealed for Matheus Cunha's Wolves return

The forward has been sidelined for the last two weeks with a significant hamstring injury which he picked up in the loss to Brentford.

This week, Brazil manager Dorival Junior said he does not expect to have Cunha available for their matches with England and Spain on March 23 and 26 and after previously not giving a timeline on his return, O’Neil has now revealed a likely comeback date for the attacker.

“I hope he’s available straight after the international break,” O’Neil told the Express & Star.

“But there’s a lot of things that can go well, or not so well, between now and then.

“In an ideal world we’d have him back and around it after the internationals.

“If it doesn’t go quite so well, obviously time can be added to that. There will be no risks taken with Matheus Cunha.

“As soon as the medical team are happy and as soon as Matheus Cunha is happy, he’ll be back, so lets see.

“There is possibly potential for him to be back around training before the international break.

“I understand the national coach’s comment, because for him to be ready to go away and play international football at that time would be very quick as he wouldn’t have done much for us.

“Hopefully he’ll be back really quickly for us but lets see how the next few weeks unfold.”

Meanwhile, Sasa Kalajdzic is due back at Wolves to continue his recovery from his latest serious knee injury.

The striker, who suffered the blow while on loan at Eintracht Frankfurt, returned to the UK for surgery yesterday.

O’Neil was ‘really disappointed’ to see the Austrian suffer his third injury of this nature since 2019 and that the club are all behind him, as he begins the long road to recovery.

“I would expect most of his stuff to be done here, but the clubs are still discussing the best way to do it for him,” O’Neil said.

“Obviously Sasa’s personal situation is important to that as well, with his family and where best suits him.

“But the most important thing is what’s best for the injury, so the discussions are still ongoing with our medical team and their medical team on the best way to handle it.

“He’ll be spending a substantial amount of time here making sure that he gets the best stuff. Once he’s had his operation and it’s settled down, I expect him to be back in the gym here and getting back to work.”

O’Neil added: “I’m really disappointed for him. I messaged him and had a quick chat. We’re all behind him. He’ll get all the support he needs and I know all the boys are thinking of him. We’re hopeful he’s not feeling too down.”