During the first half of Wolves' 2-0 Premier League defeat to Brentford earlier this month, forward Matheus Cunha suffered an injury and was unable to continue. Speaking a few days after the game, manager Gary O'Neil confirmed that the issue was "fairly significant" but shied away from predicting how much time he would miss.
He said: "It's a fairly significant injury to his hamstring. There's no timeline on it. I've spoken to Matheus a lot and he just wants to keep pushing to get back as soon as he can. He's started working on it already, so we're just going to monitor it week by week, day by day.
"It's obviously a big blow to us, to the team and Matheus because of the work he's been doing — the form he was in was exceptional. These things happen, every team suffers injuries."
Ahead of Sunday's home game against Sheffield United, O'Neil had initially reiterated that there was no timeline on the Brazilian's recovery, but that now appears to have changed.
Cunha's possible comeback date emerges
Writing on Twitter, Express & Star journalist Liam Keen shared the news that O'Neil had communicated a prognosis "for the first time". The "cautious" 40-year-old says that Cunha could return for the trip to Aston Villa at the end of March, but that will depend on a variety of factors.
"I hope he’s available straight after the international break, but there’s a lot of things that can go well, or not so well, between now and then. In an ideal world we’d have him back and around it after the internationals.
"If it doesn’t go quite so well, obviously time can be added to that. There will be no risks taken with Matheus Cunha. As soon as the medical team are happy and as soon as Matheus Cunha is happy, he’ll be back, so lets see. There is possibly potential for him to be back around training before the international break."
Which games will Cunha miss?
Cunha has arguably been Wolves' best player this season, so the Molineux faithful will be counting down the days until he returns. While Hwang Hee-chan has scored more goals (10 vs nine) and Pedro Neto has provided more assists (nine vs five), nobody in the squad can better his 15 goal involvements.
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And he doesn't just impact the game in the opposition penalty area. With a squad-high 2.2 dribbles completed per game, he also gets Wolves into dangerous positions by running with the ball.
Game
Venue
Date
Competition
Sheffield United
H
25 February
Premier League
Brighton and Hove Albion
H
28 February
FA Cup
Newcastle United
A
2 March
Premier League
Fulham
H
9 March
Premier League
Bournemouth
H
16 March
Premier League
Cunha is set to miss the cup tie against Brighton and a clash with one of the sides just above Wolves in the table – eighth-place Newcastle. However, the consolation is that four of the next five are at home, and all of them still look winnable.