Sasa Kalajdzic: Huge blow for Wolves as medical staff confirm recent attacking signing suffered ACL injury on debut

Wolves have suffered a major blow after recent signing Sasa Kalajdzic was confirmed to have picked up an ACL injury on his debut.

Kalajdzic started up front for his new club on Saturday, during a 1-0 win against Southampton. However, he had to leave the action at half time due to feeling some discomfort. Now, it has emerged that he has picked up a serious injury.

A statement from Wolves on Sunday has confirmed that Kalajdzic has suffered an ACL injury in his knee.

The Wolves medical team wrote: “Sasa felt a pain in his knee late in the first-half against Southampton. Unfortunately, scans reveal an anterior cruciate injury and he will see a knee specialist tomorrow.

“We now need to support Sasa in his recovery and further updates will follow.”

An injury of this nature will more than likely rule Kalajdzic out for the rest of 2022. Any involvement towards the back end of the season will depend on his recovery time.

After needing a striker and chasing Kalajdzic in the summer, losing him so early for a factor beyond their control will be a huge blow to Wolves.

They are also currently without fellow centre-forward Raul Jimenez due to injury issues of his own.

Explaining why he missed the Southampton match, the anonymous medical staff confirmed: “Raul’s pre-season was interrupted by a knee injury which means that he is still building his resilience and his ability to recover quickly during periods of match congestion.

“It was felt that his body needed a few more days to recover after he felt a pain in his groin during the warm up and we did not want to put him at increased risk of injury.”

Sasa Kalajdzic absence creates attacking headache for Lage

Head coach Bruno Lage will have to think carefully about how to shape his attack in the coming weeks.

Kalajdzic will be out for a number of months. His injury record was a concerning subplot behind the excitement of Wolves bringing him in last month.

The Austria international missed 20 games last season for Stuttgart due to various problems. Now, he will have to sit out several for Wolves after only being able to get one appearance to his name for the club so far.

After taking six games to get their first Premier League win of the season, it could be a challenging time ahead for Wolves while he is out. It will be up to Lage to work out who else he can rely on in attack.

There could be extra responsibility or alternative roles for the likes of Hwang Hee-chan, Pedro Neto and Daniel Podence.

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