Nuno: Call-ups are good for Wolves

Wing-backs Barry Douglas and Matt Doherty have been almost ever-present this campaign and are fresh from debuts for Scotland and Ireland respectively.

Ruben Neves played for Portugal, while Benik Afobe (DR Congo), Alfred N’Diaye (Senegal) and Romain Saiss (Morocco) were away too.

Nuno believes it bodes well for today’s game at Middlesbrough, and said: “It’s good for the club and good for the players themselves,” he said.

“It’s one of the highest points of football careers, when they play with their national teams. It’s good for us.

“They’re deserved, because of the hard work they’ve been doing here, in Wolves.

“I’m happy that they come (back) well, everybody’s ready.

“It’s a different situation individually, different travels. Some of them travelled long distances but fortunately for us, they’re all OK.

“What they do at their national teams, of course, is important, but it’s not my job or my worry. I trust the national team coaches, it’s normal that we have conversations.”

Table-toppers Wolves beat Boro 1-0 at home on the opening day of the season. Nuno expects a tough test from them.

“We look at Middlesbrough now and we see they’re in a good momentum, four wins at home,” he said.

“It’ll be a tough game. They’re a good team but like I always say – I keep repeating myself – we go to fight, compete, to try our best. For us, the best is to win.

“We know we still have a lot of football to play, in front of us. It’s determination to continually do a good performance, to achieve our objectives.”

One player who will not be involved at the Riverside Stadium is Diogo Jota.

On how his recovery from injury is going, and if he will be involved against Hull City on Tuesday, Nuno added: “He’s improving, the injury that he had is a painful one. We’ll go day by day. We’ll see.”