'Greatest memories' - Conor Coady ready for 'weird' Molineux return

Conor Coady admits it will be ‘a bit weird’ to take his place in the Molineux dugout on Friday evening.

The former Wolves captain is back at the ground where he enjoyed great success - leading the Old Gold from the Championship to Europe.

His job this time is assistant coach to Lee Carsley as England Under-21s resume their European Championship qualifying campaign against Kazakhstan (7.30pm).

Coady, who earned 10 senior England caps while playing for Wolves, said: “I have the greatest memories in the world from going to that stadium, from being part of that club.

“It is going to feel a bit weird [to be heading into the dugout], but for me it's a massive honour to wear the England badge.

“I think that's huge. Whether I was with the under-19s in March, or I'm with the under-21s now, or I was playing for the senior men’s team, it's always been the biggest honour in the world for me. So going back is just a nice little individual moment for me but no-one else really needs to know about it.

“More importantly, it's about the lads going and performing. We’ll be looking at the preparation, what we're going to do in the game and making sure we've prepared so we're ready for what Kazakhstan throws at us and how we're going to win the game.”

The under-21s follow their Molineux match with games against Slovakia the following Friday and the Republic of Ireland on October 6 as they look to seal their passage to the 2027 finals in Albania and Serbia.

“It's huge and there's a goal at the end of the day and as football players, you want to know what your goal is at the end of it,” added Coady in an interview with England Football. “It’s clear for us all to see and it's a massive one for me to come into, but I'm so focused on helping Lee, Paul and the lads as much as I possibly can.

“I'm throwing myself in as much as I can to try and make the environment, the training and the lads as prepared as they can be going into these games.

“They're massive games and I'm going off first-hand experience, the end goal is to win and you know where it takes you if you win.“So that's the full focus going into these camps and these games and it's something obviously we all can't wait for.”