Coady | On positive Raul news, returning to Anfield and facing Jota

5th December 2020

Conor Coady insists returning to Anfield means as much to everyone else in the Wolves side as it does for himself as a former Liverpool player, as the squad looks forward to testing themselves against the challenge of the reigning Premier League champions.

The Wolves skipper and his teammates go into Sunday’s game – where they will be reunited with former old gold forward Diogo Jota – off the back of a difficult week following the fractured skull suffered by talismanic forward Raul Jimenez at Arsenal last weekend, but Coady and his team have been boosted by the positive daily updates on the Mexican’s condition which have been keeping the spirits up in the gold and black camp.

On keeping team morale high following Raul’s injury

“We’ve spoken to him every day and he’s been chatting on the group messages, so that’s been really good to see. We’ve also been speaking to the doctor every day about him because everybody was worried, and everybody wants him to recover safely and healthily.

“When it happened it was horrible, and I can’t explain what it was like, because he’s a massive part of our team, a massive part of the group and a massive friend to everyone in our team.

“We’ve had to keep morale high, but this week’s been good because we’ve been getting good news about him and things seem to be going ok, he seems to be happy with what’s going on, and time will tell with how he recovers.

“At the moment, we’re just happy that everything is going alright, but there’s still a long way to go and we just hope and pray that everything will be alright with him.”

🙏 pic.twitter.com/CPQDuq7B9E
— Raúl Jiménez (@Raul_Jimenez9) November 30, 2020

On returning to Anfield as a former Red

“It’s a place where everyone looks forward to going, not just myself, because when you go and play Liverpool, you want to test yourself against the best players.

“You want to impose your style of play, impose your way of playing and show people how much you’re improving, and that’s no different from anybody else.

“I’ve been back there a few times over the last couple of years and not got the results we wanted, so it’s important we go there and impose our way of playing and hopefully come away with a good result.”

On taking confidence from last season’s tight matches against Liverpool

“I don’t think it’s just from going there last season, I think it’s the way we play, the way we work together, the way we compete, the way we do things and the way we listen to our manager that gives us belief.

“We had a good result last week, and we’ve had a few good results this season. We’ve also listened to the manager the last couple of weeks about changes in the way he wants us to play, and it’s been great and something we’ve all taken on board.”

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On coming up against Diogo Jota

“He’s been fantastic. I think every player in our dressing room knew the sort of player he was, we know the sort of character he is, and we know that he would’ve gone there with the right mentality.

“His mentality is incredible and we knew he was going to go there and score goals, and honestly, I couldn’t speak more highly of him. Anybody who comes into our changing room and then moves on to different things, we always want the most success for them in the world, because they’re fantastic people, and that’s no different with Jota.

“We’re looking forwards to coming up against him and hopefully he won’t have too much success on Sunday, but what he’s done since the start of the season has been fantastic, and that’s all credit to him because he’s a brilliant person.”

On the qualities of his opposition captain Jordan Henderson

“I admire everything he does, I admire everything he did over the lockdown period because the work he went about doing was absolutely incredible, bringing the captains together and bringing the players together on how we wanted to do things to help people, because the world this year has been ridiculous for everybody and something we don’t want to experience again.

“But I think his overall way of handling himself is fantastic, and you see what he’s done for Liverpool is incredible, and he’s a fantastic player as well.”

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On Covid protocol ending his run of 119 consecutive appearances

“It means everything to me, and it’s something where I give my whole life to this football club, every time I come in to play for this club is a real honour, every time I put the shirt on and play for Wolves, whether it’s a weekend or a weekday, and every time I come in to training.

“I love coming in to work here, with my teammates and the staff around the place and it means the world to me, so for the run to end in circumstances that I couldn’t control – there was nothing wrong with me, I wasn’t injured and was getting tested about five or six times within the two weeks – I was absolutely gutted.

“But the lads went out on the night and did a really good job. It was a really tough game against Southampton and I thought the lads were excellent.

“It’s something that happens, and it’s the world we’re living in today, but I’m really lucky to be in the position I’m in, because there’s a lot of people who are in a much worse off position than me, but in terms of the run, it means the absolute world to me.”