Raul Jimenez will take longer to recover from his knee injury than Wolves first anticipated, Inside Wolves can reveal.
The striker was sidelined during the Carabao Cup clash with Everton and missed the Black Country derby win over Albion, but Cesar Peixoto revealed at the time that Jimenez’s injury was not as bad as first feared.
Now, the club’s medical department has put Jimenez back in a temporary knee brace, and he will remain sidelined for the time being, with Peixoto admitting that the player will take a bit longer to recover - but he was unable to give a specific timeline.
“In the first moment, we felt it was a bad injury, and the second moment I told you he’s not too bad,” Peixoto said.
“Now (it’s in the balance), Raul is doing everything on the technical side to recover as soon as possible, but I think he’s going to delay a little more.
“Raul doesn’t feel comfortable stepping up, and the department delayed a little more because he has to come and stay, not come and go again.
“We have to go slowly with Raul because he’s an important player for us and we want Raul to play the season, not stay, come and go out, so we have to go more slowly with him.”
When asked for a timeline on Jimenez’s return, Peixoto added: “No, I don’t have the timeline. I don’t lie, I don’t have the timeline.”
Meanwhile, Wolves also have minor injury concerns with Fer Lopez and Jordan James, who both returned from international duty with small problems.
This puts their involvement against Middlesbrough on Saturday in doubt, but Peixoto said they will make a decision on whether to play them.
He also added that Jean-Ricner Bellegarde played more minutes for Haiti than the club anticipated, meaning they will need to be careful not to aggravate his previous hamstring injury.
“Fer came with a little problem in the knee,” the head coach said.
“Jordan James has a little problem in his foot.
“Bellegarde came back more delayed than the others, he traveled a lot, played more minutes than we expected because he came back from the injury.
“You have to manage the sessions with them also. But the guys are happy to come back with our group.
“We have a great group spirit, they've grown up a lot in the last two weeks, and I think they are ready. But with these kinds of problems, we have to manage them for tomorrow.”
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When asked if Lopez and James will play, Peixoto added: “I don't do mind games, they are not 100 per cent.
“They have pain, a little pain through their training, but I have to think and talk with them until the last moments to see if it is better for the team that they play in this game or they don't play, and because we have three games in a row this week, the next week is the same.
“If it is better to take the risk or not, we have to manage that situation with the medical department also and make the best decision for the team.
“I look all the time for what is best for the team. We have a lot of games, we have to manage these kinds of players.”
Wolves did have some good news on the injury front, however, as Rafiki Said will travel with the squad to face Middlesbrough, and Yerson Mosquera is back in team training.
“Rafiki, yes, to take more minutes, to start to take minutes to stay at a good level,” Peixoto said.
“Yerson needs a little more time because he's come back from the injury, and he needs a little more training with us.
“Rafiki will go with us to the game because he's staying at a good level now.”
Bad news on Raul. I feel he’ll bench Fer and JJ. Mane in the 10. Not sure who plays left side with Bellegarde playing too many minutes as well as travel. Not good really going into Boro game. I’ll take a point now.