Exclusive: Wolves forward Matheus Cunha ruled out for remainder of US tour

The Brazilian forward, who suffered a serious hamstring injury last season, came off 30 minutes into Wolves’ friendly against West Ham on Saturday after scoring the opening goal.

It was originally feared to be a knee issue, but head coach Gary O’Neil has now confirmed it is a hamstring concern that will see Cunha miss the remaining friendlies against Crystal Palace and RB Leipzig across the pond.

“Cunha felt a slight pain low down in his hamstring,” O’Neil told the Express & Star’s Wolves podcast.

“He’s had a scan and the damage isn’t big. It’s only a small bit of damage, but it is in an area where it can reoccur, so we do have to manage it carefully.

“I don’t envisage him being out long. He won’t play again on this trip because there’s no need to risk him.

“But once we get home and things start to settle, I don’t envisage it being too long.

“It’s annoying, obviously, because it’s in a part of the season where you feel like you’re in control of most things.

“That game and day became a little bit out of control with the delayed warm-up, the weather and the pitch being saturated.

“It’s so frustrating because he was in such a good place, but he’ll be fine.

“When you’re the manager and you lose one of your best players, it’s always a disaster, but we are better equipped with the attacking players we have.

“We’ll be fine and keep working, and then when Matheus comes back he’ll make us stronger again.”

When asked if Cunha is a doubt for the opening game of the Premier League season, O’Neil added: “I wouldn’t see him as a doubt for the start of the season, I’m confident he’ll be out there against Arsenal.

“You can be wrong with these things, but at the moment I’m not concerned for Arsenal.”

Meanwhile, O’Neil is left with big decisions to make on the futures of Daniel Podence, Goncalo Guedes and Fabio Silva.

Podence travelled to Marbella but has missed the US with injury, meaning Guedes was given a surprise inclusion, while £35million striker Silva has been omitted from both pre-season tours to Spain and the US.

O’Neil added: “Daniel’s calf is still sore so he won’t play any part in the games on this trip.

“Guedes is doing well and I thought he looked sharp the other night.

“Fabio is obviously training away from the group and I would expect him to move in this window, but we’ll see what happens.

“Everything at this moment is going to plan and how the club wants it to go, we just need a few things to fall into place so we can start to move a few things forward.”