Wolves star Ruben Neves sidelined until May with knee injury

The star midfielder looked uncomfortable in the opening minutes of the loss to Leeds last Friday but tried to play on, before the club doctors decided he needed to come off only 25 minutes into the game.

Since then, the 25-year-old was forced to withdraw from the Portugal squad for their crunch World Cup qualifier play-off and the club have now released a statement on his condition.

It read: "He travelled to Portugal with members of the Wolves medical team to see a knee specialist, where the injury was confirmed as uncomplicated.

"He will spend this week in Portugal with the Wolves physio before returning to continue his rehabilitation at Compton Park. We are hoping for Ruben to be fit to return in May."

Meanwhile, Wolves have also confirmed that Nelson Semedo has started 'modified training' this week following the hamstring injury he sustained away at Arsenal at the end of February.

Bruno Lage said last week that he hopes to have Semedo and Pedro Neto fit for the Villa game on April 2.

Neto has missed the last two games with an impact injury to his foot and he is set to return to training next week.

The statement added: "We have been very pleased with Pedro Neto’s return to the team, but given the long period of time he has had out with his patella injury, it has been necessary to monitor everything very closely.

"He has had a couple of recent minor issues unrelated to the initial knee injury and is expected to return to full training next week."

Ki-Jana Hoever is still sidelined with a hamstring strain, which he suffered in the home loss to Crystal Palace earlier this month. He is, however, 'progressing as expected' with his rehabilitation.

Young goalkeeper Matija Sarkic, who was impressing on-loan at Championship club Birmingham City, dislocated his shoulder in early January during a game with QPR.

That injury ended his season and he returned to Wolves for rehabilitation. He has since had surgery on his shoulder and is working with the club's medical team.

Attacking midfielder Meritan Shabani is also making 'good progress' and is now taking part in under-23 training sessions. He has suffered two ACL injuries since signing for Wolves in 2019.