Boss backs Wolves man to play important role amid injury woes

Cesar Peixoto has backed Jean-Ricner Bellegarde to play an important role for Wolves as they contend with mounting injury problems.

Bellegarde scored his first goal of the season in Tuesday night’s 3-1 defeat to Bolton Wanderers, having also found the net for Haiti during the international break.

The midfielder played more minutes than anticipated for his country after recently returning from injury, but Peixoto was pleased to see the 28-year-old back among the goals and hopes he can build on it.

“I’m very happy for Bellegarde because we believe he’s an important player for us,” he told the Express & Star.

“He was injured, came back late from the World Cup and then, after only two training sessions, was injured again.

“I was very worried about the international break. I spoke with his national-team coach to try to manage his minutes, but he played more than we wanted.

“Fortunately, he came back without any problems.

“He’s an important player. Scoring a goal is good for his confidence and it’s good for the team.

“He’s also a player who can play in a lot of different positions. For a coach, having a clever, intelligent player who can play in three or four positions is amazing. Especially with the injuries we have, this kind of player is very important.”