Toti feels the high standards in the Wolves squad means no player is guaranteed a starting spot as he looks to regain his place in the team ahead of this weekend’s Premier League visit to Sunderland.
The Old Gold captain missed the draw with Brighton & Hove Albion last time out through illness, but he had to settle for a place on the bench for the visit to Tottenham Hotspur the previous week as Vitor Pereira opted for Ladislav Krejci and Santi Bueno in a back four.
But with a first ever visit to the Stadium of Light for the defender coming up on Saturday, Toti is determined to fight for his position back, but admits it’s been a tough few weeks of preparation at Compton with most of the squad away on international duty.
On recovering from the flu
“I’m feeling better right now. The flu got to me and I was not expecting it to happen, but sometimes it can happen. We are in a season right now where it can happen often to the players, and it’s not good to be away from training and the games, and watching it from home. But now I’m feeling good and ready to help the team whenever the gaffer wants me to.
“The international break came at a good time for me as it gave me time to recover. Even while the other guys were away, I was still training, even at home, so it was a good time to recover and now I’m feeling good.”
On training during the international break
“It’s not easy, because we’ve only had like six or seven players in training. We’re missing a lot of players. But it’s been a good thing too, because they are in their national teams, so it’s good that they’re getting the recognition.
“Obviously, it’s meant training has been a bit different and the coaches have had to manage the training differently. We’ve definitely been able to work closer with the coaches during this time. You can work on some more specific stuff with the gaffer, because there aren’t as many players, and you can go into more detail on things.
“We’ve also been training with the under-21s and they’ve been helping us in the sessions. We had a friendly game against them too on Saturday which was good, so we’ve stayed fit, we kept training and after we had some days off to recover.”
On having most of the squad away with their national teams
“It’s made preparing for this weekend difficult because of the players missing, and they’re going to arrive very close to the game. A few of them would have had long journeys, coming from South America, from Africa, or from Asia, so they're going to arrive a little bit tired.
“It’s going to be hard for the gaffer to prepare as much as he would have liked for the next game because there will still be a couple of players missing, but I think everybody will be ready by the time of the game.
“I’m hoping everybody can arrive on time so we can start preparing for the game against Sunderland. Some players are going to arrive a little bit later compared to normal, and they will be a little bit tired and fatigued from the travel, but as soon as everybody’s here, we’re going to prepare well for the next game against a tough team.”
On facing Sunderland this weekend
“It’s definitely a different challenge. It will be the first time I’ve faced them and you never know what to expect, because there’s players that you’ve never played against, and playing in a new stadium.
“But this is the good thing about England. You always have the chance to play against these kind of teams, historic teams, so we know we’re going to have a tough game, but we’re going to go there with everything to get the three points.”
It's Sunderland up next. ⏳ pic.twitter.com/GJPPyQMpaT
— Wolves (@Wolves) October 15, 2025
On fighting to get his place back
“It doesn’t matter who you are, nobody here can be comfortable with their position in the team now because we have very good quality in the squad. Everybody’s ready to play, everybody’s ready to help, and it’s good that we have a squad where we can make changes and everyone can have an impact.
“Sometimes you’re going to have to change when things are not going well, and the gaffer needs to do his decisions, but everybody’s ready. We have a very good squad, and we just need to keep working hard and everyone needs to come back from the international break ready to help.
“We’ve not had conversations about [his place in the team], but he just felt that he needed to change a little bit at the time, and we, as players, just need to respect that. I can’t say much about it. All I can do is just keep working hard so I can come back to the starting level.
“I just need to keep staying fit, and when the opportunity comes again, I need to go there and show it. But I think it’s because we have a very good squad too and everybody’s ready to play. We just want good things for the team, so we need to support whoever is playing.”
On turning draws into wins
“Football is 90 minutes. You can start winning the game, but if in the last five minutes, the last 10 minutes, you lose your focus, then they can come and take your points. We need to keep working hard, like we’ve been doing.
“Of course, in the last two games, the team did very well, but it was just the last few minutes that we lost a little bit of focus. Sometimes it’s not even about losing focus, and sometimes you’re just unlucky with the results, because you feel like you did everything, but in the end, they got the chance and they scored.
“It felt a little bit unfair, but we need to work more on those little details for the next games that are coming.”
