Wolves head coach Nuno Espirito Santo expressed his concern after debutants Bruno Jordao and Meritan Shabani were stretchered off in their penalty shootout Carabao Cup third-round win against Reading.
Jordao has an ankle injury after a challenge with Charlie Adam and Shabani’s is a mystery after he buckled, unable to straighten his leg with no one around him as Wolves advanced 4-2 on spot kicks after the tie ended 1-1.
“Shabani looks like a long one, he is now being analysed by the doctor, then we will know what happened but it looks bad. We don’t know yet,” said Nuno.
“Jordao’s is a different situation – someone fell on him and he twisted his ankle.”
Regarding the performance, Nuno said: “The first half was good, well played. We played well and created chances with well-played situations and we defended well.
“The second half was not so good and after, when we went to 10 men, and Reading were pushing, it becomes harder.”
Midfielder Jordao put Wolves ahead with a low drive from 20 yards that somehow squirmed through goalkeeper Joao Neves Virginia in the 28th minute before being carried off just 13 minutes later.
Lucas Boye headed Reading level in the ninth minute of time added on after substitute Shabani – another Wolves debutant – was forced off.
In the shootout, captain for the night Ruben Neves, Jese Vallejo, Ryan Bennett and Ruben Vinagre kept their nerve to score for Wolves, while substitute George Puscas and Matt Miazga netted for the visitors and John Swift’s effort was saved by John Ruddy and Boye ballooned over.
With Jordao and Shabani off and all three substitutes used, Wolves ended the game with 10 men.
Reading manager Jose Gomes hinted that Virginia would pay a price for his mistake for Jordao’s goal.
“He (Virginia) did good things but we cannot hide the way we conceded that goal so we need to help him recover to be better in the future,” he said.
The Royals boss was happier with their performance however.
“We didn’t deserve to be 1-0 down at half-time. It was a lucky goal for Wolverhampton,” he added.
“The second half was completely different. We controlled the game and created a lot of chances and recovered the ball very quickly.
“We could have scored before the goal but we didn’t. Wolverhampton were better at us in the penalties.”
