“From bad to worst”- Leicester City suffered three injuries at Wolves as Ruud van Nistelrooy rues ‘two massive blows’
A triple half-time change had seemed like a reaction from van Nistelrooy to a poor first-half showing at Molineux, but he said after the game that two of the three subs were enforced
Leicester City suffered three injuries in a matter of minutes at Wolves with Ruud van Nistelrooy bemoaning “two massive blows” to his team.
When van Nistelrooy made a triple change at half-time at Molineux, it had seemed like a reaction to a poor first-half showing from City.
While van Nistelrooy wasn’t impressed, describing the first half as “unacceptable”, two of the three substitutions at the interval were enforced.
Ricardo Pereira had suffered a muscle injury, while Facundo Buonanotte, who had received treatment after a clash of heads with Rayan Ait-Nouri in the first half, was withdrawn with concussion.
That was why Wolves were able to make six changes during the game. Concussion subs do not count towards the standard five, but when a side makes one, their opponents are granted an extra change. Wolves boss Vitor Pereira did then make six subs, but van Nistelrooy stuck to five.
Just prior to half-time, Bobby De Cordova-Reid was taken off with an injury as he tackled while trying to dribble through on goal.
In the days before the game, it was revealed that Stephy Mavididi may not play again this season after he suffered an injury against Liverpool.
Talking through his decision to make three half-time changes, van Nistelrooy said: “One was a concussion of Facundo, he was throwing up at half-time. Ricky had another injury, a muscle injury. So that’s two massive blows for the team.
“Bobby came off with a muscle injury before the break. We are conceding blow after blow in results, but also in losing personnel. The other substitution was Oliver Skipp for Bouba (Soumare).”
Van Nistelrooy felt the intensity that had been missing from his team’s performance in the first half was present in the second period, but it didn’t improve the scoreline.
After the break, Jorgen Strand Larsen and Rodrigo Gomes scored near-identical goals either side of Jamie Vardy’s penalty miss for a handsome Wolves win.
“There were two moments after the break where we were too open and they counter-attacked us,” van Nistelrooy said.
“Other than that we could have got ourselves back into the game with Bilal’s shot opportunity and of course Jamie’s penalty, a chance to get another goal for the football club. That was also a big blow for him and everyone.”
