Bruno Lage admits he ‘took a risk’ with Willy Boly and Yerson Mosquera after the Wolves defenders picked up pre-season injuries. Both Boly and Mosquera suffered hamstring injuries in separate games over the past two weeks and now look set to miss the Premier League opener versus Leicester City. Lage has been left with just three fit senior centre-backs in Conor Coady, Romain Saiss and Max Kilman as a result.
Asked for an update on the fitness of Boly and Mosquera,
Bruno Lage said: “We need to wait. It’s part of the process. We are training hard with a different way to work. Also, with Yerson, he came from Colombia after a long time without training. These kinds of things can happen. We put all the guys at risk playing nine games in five days, but with three weeks to prepare for the season I prefer to take that risk. The guys who survived these four or five weeks are at a good level to start the season. Imagine Coady comes, works one day with us and the next day he played 70 minutes against Al-Shabab and against Stoke he played 90 minutes. Nothing happened to him. Sometimes it can happen, but I prefer to take the risk. They should be ready within three weeks and we need to grow up with training and with games.”
Mosquera, a 20-year-old Colombian centre-back signed from Atletico Nacional for around £5million, impressed in his first four games for the club. Wolves scouted him extensively and beat off competition from several Premier League big-hitters in the process.
Bruno Lage said: “Fantastic work from the chief scout and the guys who work with him. When I was here, I said what the squad needed to grow up. They found the kid, they gave him to me and what I saw was good. We did a good job, not just me but them. We found a player and we brought him here. If you ask all the guys, they love Yerson. But he needs time also. He did well in the first games but he needs time to adapt. Everything is new for him.”
