Wolves defender due for scan amid fears of serious knee injury

The defender was stretchered off in the second half of Wolves’ 3-1 loss after Morgan Rogers caught him as his foot planted in the turf, twisting his leg.

Mosquera looked devastated as he was taken off the pitch, with O’Neil confirming it is a knock to his knee that could be serious.

“There’s no real info, but it doesn’t look good at this moment,” O’Neil said.

“It was obviously a big blow for us in the game, firstly, and it would be a big blow for us to lose him for a significant amount of time in an area of the pitch that we’re already short in.

“He was performing at a very high level for us in that area. It’s not one we can afford to lose.

“Hopefully it’s not as bad as is feared, but it’s not looking good at this moment.”

The tackle from Rogers came after Mosquera had committed a foul and the whistle had already been blown.

When asked for this thoughts on the challenge, O’Neil added: “I haven’t seen it back but it didn’t look like a good one. The whistle had already gone and I’m disappointed for him to suffer such a serious injury.

“He was in with the physios and he’s disappointed. Even at that moment at 1-1 we were still in with a chance of a decent result.

“He’s disappointed and he’s obviously hoping for the best with the scan results, which will follow in the next few days.”

Despite losing the West Midlands derby, Wolves put in a strong performance for more than an hour before the momentum shifted.

Defensive mistakes handed Villa a way back into the game and O’Neil bemoaned those errors.

“Structurally we had no issues and then we lost too many duels,” he said.

“The first goal comes from the tackle, the second comes from a second phase set play.

“As well as we played in the first half we could have been further in front, but no-one comes to Aston Villa and wins at a canter.

“The second half was never going to look like the first half and we knew it would get tough and we’d have to fight and scrap.

“They are a resilient group and they give everything, but a couple of slips and we’ve been punished again.

“We’re down the bottom of the league and we need to fight and scrap to survive every moment.”

Wolves face Liverpool at Molineux next and goalkeeper Sam Johnstone is eager to remain positive for the upcoming challenges.

He said: “It’s tough. It was a game of two halves and we did so well to go 1-0 up.

“To lose it towards the end is tough for us as a team and staff.

“It’s never going to be easy, it’s the Premier League, but also playing against Villa at Villa Park.

“We said at half-time it was going to be tough. They scored a goal, it turned things and we struggled.

“We have a great team, a great bunch of players and we’ve had some very difficult games.

“But we can’t get sidetracked with that and we have to keep doing what we’re doing and hopefully the wins start coming.

“We’ve had a tough start but we’ll keep looking forward, keep working and not get sidetracked. There’s a long way until the end of the season.

“Hopefully it starts changing soon, for us, the club and the fans. We have to keep going in the right direction and be positive.”