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Elokobi injury sparks search
Monday 25th August 2008, 11:30AM BST.
Wolves could lose George Elokobi for several months after he sustained suspected knee ligament damage.
Elokobi left Portman Road in an ambulance on Saturday with his left leg completely strapped to sour the excellent 2-0 win at Ipswich.
X-rays have confirmed no break but the left-back was today set to undergo a scan to determine the extent of the damage.
But club officials fear he has sustained knee ligament damage and have stepped up their efforts to secure defensive cover with Jody Craddock out for three months with a broken foot.
Manager Mick McCarthy said: “Neither George nor Jody will be playing for quite a while. We were already looking for new players. This just increases the need.
“It doesn’t look good for George. He’s a tough nut and he went off strapped up, but I wouldn’t like to guess just how bad it was.
“But it looks like he might have fluid on the knee so we’ll have to wait and see.
“I think he got fouled. He was pulled from behind and he just twisted it as went down.”
The injury to Elokobi has persuaded McCarthy to take Darren Ward off the transfer list after he replaced Elokobi on Saturday, with Neill Collins moving to left-back.
“He’s been on the transfer list, but I’ll be taking him off it after that,” added the boss. “He showed just how much he wants to stay and play.”
After Saturday’s win the Wolves manager refused to get carried away and hit back at suggestions that Wolves have not always played the way they are now.
“Let’s correct this complete fallacy that we didn’t create chances last season. Last year we created chances too. We just bloody missed them, that’s all.
“We didn’t have people to put them in the net. So far we have,” he said.
Wolves are continuing to monitor the two or three central defensive targets, but the chances of one of them coming to Molineux appeared to recede after Danny Higginbotham started for Sunderland at Tottenham at the weekend.
McCarthy believes he has the quality in depth to sustain a promotion challenge.
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That really sours the win. Elokobi was coming on leaps and bounds and its a big setback for him. But lets hope it is not several months, but until then, bring cover on loan and we should be fine!
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Didn’t go to Portman Road but from what I can gather Ipswich seemed to be a downright dirty side from radio commentary. Long may they not achieve premier league status!
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get well soon Elokobi. get more defensive cover mick, we need it. have you noticed how quiet the tescos have gone. UP THE OLD GOLD AND BLACK.
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No good news…
One of our most influential defenders as well.
Time for Dan Jones to show he merits a start and hopefully we can get Higginbotham in before Sat.
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That’s a bummer – hope we can get some defenders in soon.
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Strength in depth we haven’t got Mick! Certainly not in defence anyway. Get Harte in for a season and sign Higginbotham and we should be ok.
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No Mick we haven’t got the quality in depth, not without the signing of additional defenders. You cannot lose arguably your 2 best defenders without replacing them with quality, not just bodies to make up numbers. Having said this, get in those quality reinforcements and things I have to say are looking peachy. Keep the good work lads.
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Let’s hope George recovers soon. Tough and a good attitude, he deserves to succeed.
I do wish Mick would cut down on the bad language as well as the rubbish he comes out with.
Some will say it’s a sign of passion. Well you don’t have to swear to prove you’re passionate and the manager should set the right example.
As to the substance of the comment, it is now clear that the team was unbalanced for large parts of last season and we’ll score more goals and win more games because the team is set up correctly.
And as for his comparison with the Ipswich game last season, I remember the Five Live commentator saying that we were appalling that day and the 3-0 scoreline was more than justified. Another example of Mick seeing the world differently from the rest of those who watch football regularly.
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the injury to elokobi shows how important it was to get our finger out during the summer and buy the quality defenders needed. the likes of berra was available at the start of the summer for the right price!!£2million.
higginbotham could be good player for wolves but will we now have to pay more than expected due to the current crisis.
i hope eleokobi is back with us sooner than later.
great result at the weekend good attacking football. 2 good wingers, strikers that can score just a lot more positive all around keep it wolves. its what we have been waiting for.
d.ward off the transfer list, this is obviously panic measure at the moment and wouldn’t even be here if a decent offer had come in for him. well its up to him now to prove a point show he’s worth a game at wolves and to show not a waste of money.
come on the wolves winning brings confidence in us fans too.
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George, get well soon, but please do not come back too early. We need you fit and well and firing on all cylinders. It’s taken the edge off Saturday’s win but lets hope the rest of the team put that little bit extra in to the game against Forest for George.
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Well said mick, but get well soon george, we need higginbotham to play, ward on the bench and gray at left back… because we still have gray and jonesy for left back and jonesy is a young quick and strong left back so he could fill in quite neatly.
but up the wanderers.
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Why not go for someone like Sammy Hypia either on loan or to buy. Great start to the season boys, lets pay the money this time, we would if we were in the prem, and I think this may be our year!!
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These incidents happen, but it is disappointing as the side needs a setled back four. Dave Jones appreciated that and the season we went up he regularly kept to the Irwin, Butler Lescott Naylor line-up with minimum substitutions. The starting line-up on saturday was beginning to look like it has real potential. Stearman looks really comfortable on the ball and he has the brains to settle Collins down. Collins is brave enough if he keeps it simple and the full-backs have real pace. Its all still young enough to develop if we have the injury luck on our side. Lets hope this is the end of the bad luck.
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I hope that the Elokobi injury, big blow that it undoubtedly is, does not distract us from the real need for reinforcement which is the centre of the defence.
At least we have Mickey Gray, Daniel Jones or even Mark Little for the full-back position.
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Would like us to sign Chris Riggott from middlesborough, only 27 but plenty of experience can’t get in the middlesborough side and wouldn’t cost the earth.
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gutted, id like to see gray fill the space
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Let’s correct this complete fallacy that we didn’t create chances last season. Last year we created chances too. We just bloody missed them, that’s all.
Trust Thick Mick to come in with a stupid comment like that to spoil Saturdays result.
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As i said before the season started and after Jody got injured, we needed defensive cover. The two reasons I gave were,
1. Injury
2. Suspension
It’s even more important now, we have no depth in our defense.
Just hope that after such a good start our luck doesn’t change.
Well done to all the lads and to Jody and Elekobi a speedy recovery.
Come on ye Wolves
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17:
Trust wolveswolves to come with some stupid comment like that to spoil Saturdays result.
You just wont admit MM’s starting to piece together a good team. I dont know if its stubborness or what, but the moaners were incredibly quiet on Saturday! Wonder why. Get behind the team for gooness sake!
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8, what planet are you on???
Can’t currently find anything to whinge about, so you have to accuse MM of swearing??? Laughable!!!
Great start by the lads, keep it up.
Get Higgy signed he will be a great signing so would Riggot, we shoulg sign them both as they played together at Derby in the Prem.
Get well soon George, hope the scan is not too bad.
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A football manager swearing! Oh, dear me!
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17. wolveswolves
Are you saying he’s wrong?
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Re 17 WolvesWolves, are you aware of what an apostrophe is? Maybe when you can write correctly we will listen to you assessment of intelligence.
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8) The 5 Live commentator for last year’s game must be clueless then. For the first 20-30 minutes it was all Wolves. Eastwood missed a penalty early on and then Ipswich came alive.
We had a car load from Birmingham and could not believe that we had lost the game 3-0!
Anyway forget about last season. What a tremendous start. Come on Wolves!
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Mick said “I think he got fouled”. Mick probably has to watch what he says but having seen the highlights there is no doubt that George was pulled from behind and this probably contributed to the fall and the injury. I was also surprised by how long the game continued before he was allowed treatment. Ipswich had plenty of opportunity to put the ball out near the half way line, but they attacked again and the game was only stopped for a foul. The ref should have stopped it earlier.
19 – Eddie, you are absolutely right. We have the makings of not just a good team but an excellent one. Jarvis is fantastic, Stearman is getting better each match, SEB is the most exciting forward we’ve had since you know who, Edwards has loads of potential.
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We do have some good players and one of the best squads in the division. We should go up automatically with our team, the same was true last year.
Two scenarios really this year, we go up in spite of thick mick or we stay down, again because of him.
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17. wolveswolves
Well said mate, the fact that we are playing with two class wingers, some first class strikers and winning games doesn’t make any difference. We are watching the games, we have eyes and brains, why does he insult us with this twaddle?
Some public relations training would not go amiss for Mick.
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1. Get Little back from Northampton for a start.
2. Not one but possibly two central defenders in. A wise older head and a younger kid with pace and potrential.
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looks like sunderland are getting anton ferdinand today, so higgingbottom could be soon available.
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I have it on good authority that Danny Higginbotham is due at Compton in Wednesday evening to complete deal pending the medical report for thursday. I have a confidence with him at left back give collins and stearman a chance whilst we get another centre half in we will beat forest 2-0, not really bothered about the rotherham game!
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Apparantly Roy keane has rejected the offer for Higginbottam. He has stated that a player they bought for 3m will not have had theie transfer value reduced by half. looks like look again Mick!!
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It’s a pity we did not grab David Wheater when he was here on loan.Concentrate on signing a CB and LB, MICK.
The complete jigsaw.
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No17 MM is right until SEB arrived we couldnt hit a barn door from two yards
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Right it was a good win. But what happens if we lose kightly or Jarvis or maybe both. We are well and truly stuffed I think. I also worry if we lose a couple of our strickers again stuffed!!
Here’s hoping we don’t
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Lets hope we can wing it through the season with no injuries! An injury to any two of our strikers would leave us in a mess! As mentioned earlier
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