Wolves boss Mick McCarthy stands by his decision to select a shadow team for their defeat at Manchester United.

He has been asked to explain his selection by the Premier League, having stated after the 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford that his regular first XI needed to rest after their weekend exertions.

McCarthy has reiterated his stance, claiming that he could have lost a number of key men had he asked them to play two games in quick succession.

"People may think the players look fresh, but they don't see the physio's room of a morning," he said in the Birmingham Mail.

"Players don't just recover overnight from these games - they take a hell of a lot out of them and it takes a lot to recuperate from them.

"Most of them have got tight hamstrings, tight calves and tight groins.

"There are a lot of fatigue-based niggles and playing another game within three or four days increases the likelihood of those becoming proper injuries that will mean them missing games.

"You can't just keep whipping them and whipping them all the time.

"At some stage, someone is going to pull up and I just don't want that to happen with the games we've got coming up."