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Wolves: Ben Dinnery doesn’t expect Diego Costa to be ready to start until close to World Cup

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Image for Wolves: Ben Dinnery doesn’t expect  Diego Costa to be ready to start until close to World Cup

Injury expert Ben Dinnery has predicted that fitness issues will mean Diego Costa probably won’t be ready to start for Wolves until just before the World Cup. 

Following the close of the summer market, Bruno Lage’s men managed to sign the forward on a free transfer after leaving Brazilian side Atletico Mineiro in January.

He came in to replace summer signing Sasa Kalajdzic, who has been ruled out for some time with an ACL injury, but due to Costa’s lack of fitness, he might not be ready to make a huge impact right away.

Indeed, while talking about the new Wolves arrival on the Premier FPL Injuries channel on YouTube, Dinnery expects that he will initially just get minutes off the bench but he won’t ‘realistically’ be pushing for a start for some time.

He said: “Now, the issues that we have here – he hasn’t played competitive football since December 2021. Now, he’s gone through a lot of baseline testing – flexibility, sprint, agility – all of those measures will determine how close Diego Costa is to being included in that first-team squad.

TIF Thoughts on Diego Costa and Wolves…

During his 120 appearances with his last English club, Chelsea, Costa scored 59 goals and also provided 23 assists, so we all know he can make an impact in the Premier League.

However, he is 33 years old now, and as Dinnery says, his last competitive outing came in December 2021 – a season where he played just 1,157 minutes of football – so he can’t be expected to have a great deal of fitness right now.

Of course, following the injury to Kalajdzic, Wolves will be delighted to have a new man in as a replacement, but it does sound as though it would be foolish to expect too much of Costa over the next few weeks and possibly even months – although you would imagine the World Cup will grant the striker ample time to build his fitness up.

Having said that, the fact he is unlikely to be capable of an instant impact will surely be a blow to Wolves as their striker crisis may continue for a while yet.

Will Diego Costa be a good signing for Wolves?

Yes

Yes

No

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