The 20-year-old, who has made almost 100 appearances in gold and black for Wolves’ under-18 and under-23 sides since joining the club at the age of 15, played eight times for Harrogate during the second half of the last campaign, having made the move to the EnviroVent Stadium in January.
However, the versatile Republic of Ireland under-21 international saw his time in North Yorkshire hampered by injury, so the left sided defender will be heading back to the Sulphurites with a point to prove second time round.
Matt Jackson, Wolves’ strategic player marketing manager, insists the move back to Harrogate will be a positive one for Richards, who has “unfinished business” with the League Two outfit.
“Lewis went to Harrogate and settled really well up there with the team and he was playing very well at the level, but he obviously only played for a short time before he got quite a serious injury,” Jackson said.
“He’s worked really hard to get back to peak fitness, co-operated brilliantly with Harrogate and they’ve been excellent in their communications with us, and Lewis can hopefully now go and have that impact that he was starting to have during his initial spell up there.
“We try to take as much risk out of the loan as possible, so he knows the environment there, he knows a lot of the personnel, he knows what the crowd are like, he was very close with the coach and knows what he can do, as he can play in quite a few positions.
“This move is taking the variables out of the situation, so now Lewis can just go and concentrate on being the best player he can be.”
