Wolves defender Richard Stearman got an England Under-21 call-up today to complete a full team of internationals for the club over the next fortnight.
Stearman, one of the outstanding successes of Wolves high-flying start to this Championship campaign, became the 11th player to head for international duty as he was called in by Stuart Pearce to replace the injured Micah Rchards.
He is joined by Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, although the Wolves striker’s fitness – he missed the defeat at Swansea at the weekend – will be assessed amid the likelihood of his missing Friday’s clash against Wales Under 21s.
The 21-year-old Stearman, having played at Under-17 and Under-18 age group levels for England, has twice made it into the Under-21s before but has yet to step on to the pitch at that level.
But Wolves boss Mick McCarthy, despite his pride at the host of call-ups, will also be worried that an injury-plagued first two months at club level will not be aggravated.
As well as his English stars, McCarthy has a quartet away with the Irish – Kevin Foley, Andy Keogh, Darren Potter and Stephen Ward – and Chris Iwelumo on duty with Scotland while Wayne Hennessey, Sam Vokes and Dave Edwards (Wales) and Carlos Edwards (Trinidad & Tobago) are also absent.
The players’ growing recognition comes at a time when injuries have played a key role in taking the heat out of Wolves’ runaway start and McCarthy is desperate his men return in one piece.
Captain Karl Henry admits as much in welcoming the break the rest of the players will enjoy while their international colleagues are still in action.
“It gives us chance to re-assess things and it gives the injured players time to come back for the next game,” says Henry.
“We need as much time as possible to get people fit. But we’d also rather have a game as soon as possible to get Swansea out of our system.
“We’re not suddenly a poor team - we’re a good set of players and we’re going to keep our heads up.”
25 Comments
Great news RAFFO
Well done Stears!
I suppose a managers job is easier when you are top and scoring for fun, now the wheels are wobblin’ a bit it’s time for Mick to show his worth.
Stears has been colossus since his arrival. His performance against Preston a few weeks ago typified this, tremendous on the ground and in the air. Well deserved call-up but thank goodness for this international break. I am usually against them but this one is very much welcomed!
Congratulations Stears but dont get injured
Great news-Again Wolves players good enough for their COUNTRY–Great mate stay in one piece please and Good Luck–Crazey Dave
When does henry get a call up!!! ?? He He!
4 - Couldn’t of said it better myself……he also looks good surging forward and I can see him contributing a few goals this season too!!
Well done Stears.
break a leg lad
would of been 12 if kites was fit, and sure it MIGHT of been 13 if Jarvis had stayed fit too. So things are not all doom and gloom me thinks….
Hope Ebanks Blake is rushed into one of the England games half fit, dont get me wrong I love seeing my county doing well at all levels, but would hate to see him struggle through 2 games to come back to us injured and out for a few games. Big month coming up and we need to be back to our best.
Good luck to all on the break.
damn spelling above! was mean to read
“hope Ebanks blake is not rushed”
“country not county”
see you can take the lad out of cannock…but not the cannock out of the lad!
Well done to Stears and well deserved. Let’s hope they all come back unscathed. Whilst on the international break and the dust settles on the Reading/Swansea results- a few observations. I reckon another 50 points from the remaining 36 games will guarantee a play off spot. Whilst another 66 points would almost certainly guarantee automatic promotion. Lets have a look where we are after 20 games and re-assess it. I suspect Blues and Reading will be the main threat.
3- wheels are wobbling?? We have an injry crisis, we are still 2nd in the table and only lost 2 of the first 10 games……….not really that bad. A wobble would surely be winning 2 or 3 games out of 10. He has shown his worth by winning 7 in a row. Dont start that band wagon again.
10 - “So things are not all doom and gloom me thinks….”
Nothing is doom and gloom. 2 losses in 10 games isnt bad at all. 2nd in the league. No need for negativity.
Well done Stears but a little surprised, he was dodgy early season and has just let 6 in, albeit not personally.
We`re wobbling and think it would be a brave man to ditch MM now and bring in some real quality at the helm.
Be brave Mr. Morgan.
The only danger with getting call ups is the possibility of injuries, but it is the price you pay for having quality players. You also hope that their heads arent turned by players playing for bigger clubs ie G Barry.
For a Championship team to have 11 players called up for internationals at the same time it must surely be the case to say Well done Wolves! And it could have been 12 if Michael Kightly was fit.
Our hopes now are that they all return in one piece for the Coventry clash on the 18th.
This shows the quality players Wolves have in the squad and it`s no surprise to see the tabloids speculating that other clubs are after our players.
So once again well done to all the players and to Mick McCarth and his staff and hope for three points in the next match.
rich5wolves…thanks for stating what i already said….things arent doom or gloom. Think you need to read some earlier pages where it was, think we’d lost 8 out of 10 the way some people went on, was simply saying it isnt and we should be happy!
we are a great team it is just we have been very unlucky with ijurys i mean i would of taked 22 points from 10 games at start of season . so what we lost 2 games in a row its confidence that has been knocked and complaining isnt going to help.
i just think that mcarthy lives and dies by the sword and he tels it how it is .he said when we loose a coule were going to have to react but we didnt . think about it we lost with our front 4 out injurd . thats the same as liverpool playing without torres gerrard keane and carriger.
just shows the quality in our side that the negative fans dont seem to see. we ARE a quality side and as MM said, if we are in a crisis being second in the league with 22 points after 10 games then roll on the next crisis!! Im sure even the perpetual doom-mongers wouldve ripped your arm off if you had told them we’d have 22 points after 10 games…….nuff said!!!
Yes well done Stears and congrats, however I don’t believe Pearce was at Swansea on Staurday otherwise this may not have happened. Probably his worst game in a Wolves shirt. Hope it will be worst ever, sod the U21’s lets get the promotion train rolling again
Laughing wolf… do you never have anything positive to say you muppet… your posts are a joke…
17. Alfred Camilleri
I agree that this degree of International recognition is remarkable, and our thanks should go to Taffy Evans for his fantastic scouting abilities. Mick is smart enough to listen to Taff!
That Reading game needs re-examining. We had our team of young heroes exposed for the first time to seasoned Premiership hardened players. We got thumped! Is that so surprising, but our kids will have learned from that experience, they are not slow learners.
If Mick plays the right tactics next time, then our young heroes can take them apart. The pace and strength of our young first-team is truly devastating, which is why we are where we are. Nobodoy can take that away.
Stick with it fans, this still feels good!
23,swedewilf, if they learned from the reading game how comes they got hammered at swansea aye aye come on explain boing boing donk
you blind there terryCHUMPbaggie…..norway and sweden totally different countries! Plank as always