Rodrigo Gomes is eager to make up for lost time and enjoy a positive second half of the season after losing 10 weeks of the campaign due to injury.
The youngster missed November and December following groin surgery, in which time Rob Edwards arrived as head coach, but didn’t have the lively wide man available.
His first game under the new regime brought a goal against Shrewsbury Town in the Emirates FA Cup, and after lively performances off the bench against Newcastle United and Manchester City, Gomes is keen to put his injury behind him and start producing for Edwards and the fans.
On returning from his injury
“It was my first operation, so it was difficult because I was playing more. No one wants to get injured, and no one's wants an operation, so it was difficult, but I put in my mind a good mindset. I needed to do everything to return the fastest way possible, and I did that. I worked a lot with the staff and did a lot of things at home.
“When I started to train with the lads, I was excited, because the thing that I love to do is play football. I was excited. I knew that I had to be careful, because when I started with them, I was not 100 per cent. Sometimes they told me to stop a little bit.
“It was very good feeling [returning]. It was ten weeks, and for me it was a lot of time not doing what I love to do. It was unbelievable to score, that moment was perfect, I worked so hard to get fit again, so the first opportunity that I had to play was amazing.”
On resilience from player and team
“I made my debut for Braga very young – I was 17 for my first professional game. The next year I played more, then I played less, so my career in the past has been up and down. Then, before I came to Wolves, I went on loan to Estoril in Portugal.
“The main point is you always need to believe in yourself. Of course, a lot of the time things don't go like you want. Of course, no one in the club wanted to be the last position in the Premier League, but things happen. We need to react and keep believing in ourselves and work every day to try to improve our situation.
“I want to play the most games possible and try to help the team. I want to score more goals, make assists, and help the team to achieve more wins. For the team, of course we need to accept that we are in a difficult position, but we need to keep believing. We need to keep working game by game. Now we have Bournemouth, so we’ll try to do our best to win, and then keep going game by game.”
On being hungry for a win
“We want to win every game. We want to improve our game, and I think we are in a good moment. Before the match against Man City we’d gone five games without losing. We need to keep the momentum, because City, of course, is a very difficult game. Especially in the second half, we did a very good match and created a few problems for Man City. We need to keep the momentum, and if we keep working like that, we can achieve the win.”
On Edwards as a person and coach
“I like working with him a lot, because he has a lot of energy, and you could see that in training. I was injured when he first came in, and I was working alone outside, but I was watching the practice, and I liked what I saw because he has a lot of energy, similar to me. I like that type of work, and he is doing a good job. It’s very difficult, the position that we were in the past, and he tried to help us a lot and put energy, and now we can see the results and need to keep going.”
