Wolves boss Gary O'Neil frustrated at lack of attacking options
Gary O'Neil has expressed his frustration at Wolves' injury issues and bemoans a lack of January signings.
Financial constraints saw the club fail to bring in an attacker in January and they lost out to Fulham on loaning Armando Broja from Chelsea due to a loan fee the club could not afford.
Since then, four of the club's five senior attackers have suffered significant injuries and although Wolves were boosted by the return of Matheus Cunha off the bench in the 1-1 draw to Burnley, O'Neil cut a frustrated figure at his lack of options.
"It's a tough situation and there is a bit of me that's disappointed because we've come so far in the league and got into such an unbelievable situation, and then the injuries have caught up with us," he said after the draw at Turf Moor.
"The good thing from my point of view is that we did flag it to the club really clearly in January, and Matt Hobbs to be fair to him. He was very supportive and understanding.
"I was clear with them that we were overloading the players and I felt our injury record had a really good chance of getting worse during the second half of the season.
"On top of that, I also flagged how short we were in attacking positions and if we suffered even a couple of injuries to the top line if would make a huge difference to what we were able to produce.
"Unfortunately, the club were not in a position to be able to help us with that due to financial reasons.
"We had a Premier League number nine lined up to come in and help us and a fairly small amount of money stopped us doing it.
"The situation the club is in is showing now. You can see now why the aim at the start of the season was to stay in the Premier League.
"We have some unbelievable players but if you lose a couple, I'm trying to pick a starting XI from 12 fit senior outfield players.
"I would doubt there's another club in the other 91 in the country that are down that low.
"The point of all that, is that the group are out on their feet and deserve massive credit. To fight like they do, they deserve huge credit, with 42 points surpassing last year's total with eight games to go.
"It's an incredible effort from a special group of players that have given a lot to the club this year."
Wolves are hoping for more good news with injuries, however, with Hwang Hee-chan and Craig Dawson in contention to play this weekend as they are set to return to training.
"Hee-chan and Dawson have a chance for the weekend, but Bellegarde is still a bit behind them," O'Neil added.
"I would expect Dawson and Channy to definitely be around for the Nottingham Forest game, barring any setbacks.
"They will be training with us before the weekend, so it's just whether they're able to do enough to show me they're ready to go back in."
