Wolverhampton Wanderers have announced their 25-man squad for the Premier League and manager Mick McCarthy left out winger Michael Kightly due to injury.
Kightly has been out of the game for over nine months and suffered a setback in his recovery recently, leaving McCarthy with little choice but to omit him from the squad for the forseeable future.
Instead, the club will loan the winger out to another club after his recovery from the injury in order to build and regain his fitness before further consideration for future Wolves squads.
“We’re just going to let Kights get on with it,” McCarthy told the club’s official website.
“He’s still not quite ready to come back and there’s no pressure on him – it will take as long as it takes.
“There’s no time limit on it either.
“When he is fit, he won’t have played since last November and it would be very difficult in that situation to go straight back into the Premier League.
“So when he is ready, we’ll be able to discuss with him the possibility of going out on loan, which he can do before we have the chance to revise the squad in January.”
Wolves’ head of the medical department Steve Kemp agreed with McCarthy and insisted the player must be given time to mount a proper and full recovery.
“The key factor is not to rush a player back and we’ve taken our time with Kights,” Kemp added.
“He was progressing well but unfortunately has now suffered a minor setback.
“Rather than trying to carry on and push him back too quickly we have taken the sensible option of pulling him out of training and taking more time so than when he is right he’ll definitely be 100 per cent.
“With the new ruling about the 25-man squad, rather than trying to get him back to Premier League football in a certain timespan, the gaffer, having spoken to us, has decided to take the pressure off by leaving him out for now.
“And the plan would be to get some loan football before he looks to get back into the Premier League again.”
McCarthy also revealed his delight at finally naming his 25 players and now hopes to focus on the season ahead until the January transfer window and when clubs are allowed to make changes to the squad.
“I am delighted with the squad I’ve got at my disposal,” McCarthy said.
“Now we’ve got the 25 sorted and we can crack on without any interruptions until January.”
Official Wolves’ 25-man squad:
Marcus Hahnemann
Wayne Hennessey
Carl Ikeme
Kevin Foley
Ronald Zubar
Richard Stearman
Jody Craddock
Christophe Berra
Steven Mouyokolo
George Elokobi
Stephen Ward
Jelle Van Damme
Karl Henry
David Jones
Michael Mancienne (on loan from Chelsea)
Dave Edwards
Greg Halford
Nenad Milijaš
Adlene Guedioura
Matt Jarvis
Stephen Hunt
Kevin Doyle
Steven Fletcher
Sylvan Ebanks-Blake
Marcus Bent (on loan from Birmingham City)
Tags: English Premier League, Michael Kightly, Mick McCarthy, Wolverhampton Wanderers
