Wolves boss Mick McCarthy has praised defender George Elokobi’s attitude to being dropped from the team.

The popular left-back was replaced by Richard Stearman for Saturday’s 4-1 defeat against Arsenal after playing in nine Premier League games.

But the 23-year-old showed his determination to recover his form with an impressive performance at centre-back for the reserves over Birmingham on Tuesday, opening the scoring in the 2-0 win.

McCarthy revealed Elokobi reacted well to losing his place in the first team and was fully supportive of his team-mates.

The manager said: “As ever, he was supportive in the dressing room and he’s a fantastic character. He’s alright, he’s fine. When I speak to them, there are no histrionics from anyone about being dropped.

“I don’t ask them particularly straight afterwards because if anyone asked me, I’d say ‘how do you think I feel being left out of the team, happy?’”

McCarthy also confirmed Matt Hill, a possible contender for Elokobi’s position, is still some way off making a return from his ankle injury, adding: “It will be a couple of weeks before he will be out training again.”

The Wolves boss reported little change in the condition of fellow casualties David Jones (knee) and Chris Iwelumo (foot).

He said: “David was worried about it for a while, but now he’s a lot happier with it. But I’m not sure when he’s expected back on the training ground.

“Iwelumo is just the same as he was last week – he’s going to be out for a few weeks.”