Wolves were breathing a sigh of relief this afternoon after securing a work permit for £2.6m signing Nenad Milijas.

Chief executive Jez Moxey and manager Mick McCarthy headed to the Football League headquarters in Preston to present their case for clearance to sign the 26-year-old Serbia international captain.

The midfielder has also been granted his visa ahead of Wolves’ pre-season tour to Australia, with the team jetting out on Saturday.

The news further lifts the mood at Molineux after the signings of Kevin Doyle, Andrew Surman and Marcus Hahnemann.

Greg Halford is also expected to tie up a £2m move from Sunderland this week.

Playmaker Milijas said: “It is great news. I am really glad that I am now a Wolves player and can’t wait to get started.”

Moxey added: “We are delighted that we have successfully received the work permit for Nenad.

“With the case that we were presenting, we were always quietly confident that we would receive the permit but until it was completed we were not getting carried away.

“We had a very good hearing and are delighted that Nenad will now be able to join the team in Australia and look forward to his Wolves career.

“He’s a current international with a country 20th in the FIFA rankings, he’s an outstanding talent and nearly met the criteria – I think he was three games short.

“But he’s been an ever-present since he started (with the full Serbia side).

“The national coach (Raddy Antic) and the under-21s coach have given us supporting evidence and the federation has confirmed the games he was injured, which count, so the application was better than it looked.

Moxey also insisted Milijas’ suspended jail sentence from a drink-driving offence in 2005, didn’t have any bearing on their application.

“I don’t believe the charge had any bearing on the work permit application because his work permit is about his ability to work rather than the character,” he said.

“That issue happened five years ago, although he was actually charged a year last May.

“There’s always a risk so we have to be aware of that – that’s why we don’t trumpet things too loudly.

“But he’s another one who we said we wanted right from the start. We knew there would be some issues but we went ahead and did it.”