Wolves striker Chris Iwelumo has been ruled out of a fast-track comeback against Portsmouth on Saturday.

The Scotland international had his first taste of action since July when he joined Richard Stearman for the first-half of Tuesday’s 1-0 reserves’ defeat against Chelsea.

But boss Mick McCarthy has writtne off Iwelumo’s chances of a double-quick return to senior action, because of his lack of time on the pitch.

The manager said: “Chris is fine – that was a planned 45 minutes and there was no problem with him at all.

“But before Tuesday night, Chris had played 20 minutes in six months, so he’s got no chance of playing at the weekend.

“With Stearman, we’ll see how he feels today, but Chris won’t be ready for Saturday.”

Before Tuesday’s action, Iwelumo’s only time on the pitch in the last six months was in the first pre-season friendly in Australia against Perth Glory in July, as he recovered from knee ligament damage sustained against Birmingham in April – only to break a bone in his foot.

The former Charlton man wants to gatecrash the Wolves starting line-up sooner rather than later. In his absence a logjam of strikers have got ahead of him, with £6.5million club record signing Kevin Doyle and £1.8million Stefan Maierhofer having arrived since he last played.

Iwelumo said: “That’s what it’s about – competition brings out the best in players and I’m no different. The more competition there is, the more you have to step up your level and find your ‘A’ game so that can only be a positive for the team.”

The Scotland striker is already licking his lips with anticipation at how McCarthy is going to sort his attacking options.

He said: “There have been injuries up front, and it would have been great to see what the gaffer would have done if everyone was fit.

“But it’s our job now to give the gaffer a few headaches.”