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Wolves manager O'Neil: Cunha ready for Burnley

Wolves manager Gary O'Neil is ready to give striker Matheus Cunha his return from injury this week.

The Brazilian has not played since the middle of February due to a hamstring injury.

However, he is ready to come back to action and will be involved on Tuesday against Burnley.

O'Neil told reporters: “I think we'll see him on Tuesday. He'll definitely be in the matchday squad, barring anything going wrong between now and then. He's miles ahead of schedule. When the scan results came through after the injury it was expected to be somewhere between 10 and 12 weeks, and it's just over six. He's doing absolutely everything, he was knocking my door down to be involved in the Aston Villa game, but we have to make sure it's right for him. We've had a setback or two already this season from injuries.

“You have medical information that tells you he shouldn't quite be ready yet, but Matheus Cunha looks ready and tells you he's ready. He rang me about four times at 9.30, 10 o clock at night telling me how ready he is, but I want to help him. I understand he feels ready, but we need to make sure we tick enough boxes. He did a great session on the grass on Friday. Instead of risking him, he was able to really test his hamstring with a good session and it puts him in a great spot for Tuesday night and into next Saturday.

“It's important that we don't let the situation change the decisions we make. Obviously, Mathues Cunha and his hamstring are still the same regardless of if we have 11 available or 24 available. We need to make sure we're clear and make a good decision. He's still miles ahead of schedule, but he looks 100 per cent ready, so let's see how quickly we can get him in and how many minutes we can give him because he'll obviously be a big help to us.

“I'm really excited for him because he's worked so hard. As soon as the diagnosis came through, he refused to accept it because it didn't feel that bad, and said that he would be able to get back quicker and he's worked very hard to get himself back. He said I should have played him against Coventry which would have been a four-week return on a 12-week injury which would have been tough, but that's how his mindset's been since he got injured and hopefully he manages to help us when he comes back, which I'm sure he will."

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Ansser Sadiq

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