Bruno Lage has revealed Marcal’s absence from Wolverhampton Wanderers’ match day squad at Leeds United was due to injury.
Bruno Lage said: “I didn’t say anything before the game because we have two or three guys with problems. Marcal felt his calf during the week and he didn’t travel with us. I took the decision to play Rayan. Ruben (Neves) also felt some pain during the week and from my point of view he couldn’t play 90 minutes. I didn’t say it because the opposition manager might think about how to create problems for Rayan or something else.”
The Brazilian Fernando Marcal missed his first Premier League game of the season and was replaced by Rayan Ait-Nouri, who himself needed to be taken off late on at Elland Road due to injury. Lage explained that Willy Boly would miss out due to illness in his pre-match press conference, but he didn’t detail an injury to Marcal when giving his weekly fitness bulletin. Afterwards, he explained the problem with Marcal and admitted that Ruben Neves was left out because he wasn’t fit enough to start. Neves was able to enter the field for the final few minutes against Leeds as a substitute, while Lage expects Marcal ‘to be ready for next week’ when Wolves take on Everton at Molineux.
