Gary O’Neil expects to hand Matheus Cunha his return from injury in some capacity at Turf Moor on Tuesday evening.
The Brazilian has been out of action since the middle of February with a hamstring he picked up against Brentford and was pushing hard for a return at the weekend, but fell just short. Instead, Cunha spent the time testing his body, which proved positive, and his head coach is now excited at the prospect of welcoming him back ahead of schedule.
On Cunha’s imminent return
“I think we’ll see him on Tuesday. He’ll definitely be in the matchday squad, barring anything going wrong between now and then. He’s miles ahead of schedule. When the scan results came through after the injury it was expected to be somewhere between 10 and 12 weeks, and it’s just over six. He’s doing absolutely everything, he was knocking my door down to be involved in the Aston Villa game, but we have to make sure it’s right for him. We’ve had a setback or two already this season from injuries.
“You have medical information that tells you he shouldn’t quite be ready yet, but Matheus Cunha looks ready and tells you he’s ready. He rang me about four times at 9.30, 10 o clock at night telling me how ready he is, but I want to help him. I understand he feels ready, but we need to make sure we tick enough boxes. He did a great session on the grass on Friday. Instead of risking him, he was able to really test his hamstring with a good session and it puts him in a great spot for Tuesday night and into next Saturday.
“It’s important that we don’t let the situation change the decisions we make. Obviously, Mathues Cunha and his hamstring are still the same regardless of if we have 11 available or 24 available. We need to make sure we’re clear and make a good decision. He’s still miles ahead of schedule, but he looks 100 per cent ready, so let’s see how quickly we can get him in and how many minutes we can give him because he’ll obviously be a big help to us.
“I’m really excited for him because he’s worked so hard. As soon as the diagnosis came through, he refused to accept it because it didn’t feel that bad, and said that he would be able to get back quicker and he’s worked very hard to get himself back. He said I should have played him against Coventry which would have been a four-week return on a 12-week injury which would have been tough, but that’s how his mindset’s been since he got injured and hopefully he manages to help us when he comes back, which I’m sure he will.
A quick turnaround for Tuesday 🔜 pic.twitter.com/Yisjwq2F4a
— Wolves (@Wolves) March 31, 2024
On having caution with returning players
“They’re different situations. The medical reports on Pedro was that he was fine, whereas reports on Cunha are that he shouldn’t be fine yet, but he’s doing everything which makes it look like he’s ready to play in the Premier League. Me and him obviously have to understand that we take these decisions together.
“He wanted to be involved on Saturday and I took it for him, to make sure he had the boxes ticked and look towards Tuesday. Me and him will have to make a decision at some point as to when he goes in and we understand the risks, what can and can’t happen, and you never know – hindsight will tell us if we were wrong or right, but we’ll do the best we can for Matheus and the football club, and I’m sure he’ll be involved on Tuesday night.”
On Burnley being a tough test
“There are no easy games, especially with the situation we find ourselves in at this moment. Going to Burnley will be tough, as we knew Saturday would be, but that doesn’t mean that we just accept that we can’t have a real big impact on how it goes and take three points because we definitely can, and we’re desperate to go there and win, and get to 44. We’ll do everything to recover the players and make sure they’re ready. We were able to make five subs, so there was five of them that didn’t have to play 90, so hopefully that helps them feel a bit better on Tuesday, and we’ll see what we can do. Burnley will be a tough one. They got a big result at Chelsea with ten men. They’re a good Premier League team that have spent a lot of money in the summer, and it’ll be a test for us.”
On no easy trips in the top flight
“We went to Sheffield United and lost with stronger resources available to us than we have now. Every Premier League game’s difficult. You can see the margins, even in Saturday’s game, there was nothing in the game really and we lost 2-0, so you can still do well in football matches and come out on the wrong side.
“We need to make sure that we’re ready for everything, make sure we brush up on a few things that caused us issues on Saturday, and show the same fight, determination and togetherness they’ve shown already to get us to this point, and keep trying to push to achieve the most we can. It’ll be a test on Tuesday, it always is at Burnley, Vincent’s an excellent coach. It’ll be a tough game for us.”
