Express & Star

Diogo Jota an FA Cup doubt for Wolves with knock

Wolves striker Diogo Jota is a doubt for tomorrow’s big FA Cup tie at Bristol City as he continues to struggle with a dead-leg.

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The Portuguese 22-year-old has been one of the star players for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side over the past couple of months.

But he took a knock against Everton a couple of weeks ago which forced him into a reduced training schedule – and sustained damage to the same area against Newcastle on Monday.

So Nuno is seeing if Jota can train today, in a last-ditch bid to be involved in the last-16 tie at Ashton Gate.

“Diogo started his problem against Everton,” said the Wolves chief. “It was a big impact, a dead-leg, so he’s been struggling since then.

“Since then, we have taken care of him.

“We went to Marbella, and he didn’t get involved, but he trained enough to be ready to compete like he did in the last game.

“This week, again, in this game (against Newcastle), he had a knock on the same place, so he didn’t train.

“We have one more session to go, to see if he can be considered after.”

And Nuno hinted Jota is not the only one who is not at 100 per cent ahead of taking on the Robins.

When asked if there any injury worries, he said: “Yes. We have some, but there is still a training session to go.

“Then we make the decisions.”

Wolves’ next game after City is at Bournemouth next Saturday, but Nuno says his team selection will not be determined by having a decent period of time for recovery.

“No. Of course, having space between games is easier, especially for the players’ recovery,” he said.

“Sometimes the time between games is very short so you don’t have that full recovery. In this case, we are OK.”

And on potentially going all the way in the Cup, Nuno added: “We just go game by game. We don’t separate the competitions.

“It’s a game. It doesn’t matter what competition we are involved in. We do the same things, trying to go to the last detail which can help us compete better.”