Wolves boss Nuno warns against Raul Jimenez burnout
Nuno Espirito Santo has warned against burnout for star striker Raul Jimenez after his Mexico Gold Cup exploits.
Jimenez was named player of the tournament after helping Mexico beat USA 1-0 in Sunday night's final in Chicago.
The 28-year-old scored five goals in six matches, as well as providing two assists.
He and Romain Saiss – who was with Morocco at the African Cup of Nations in Egypt before they were dumped out in the last 16 on Friday – will miss next week's trip to China.
The pair will report back for duty on Monday, July 22 – three days before the start of Wolves' Europa League campaign – and work to a tailored programme as they aim for peak fitness by the time the Premier League campaign kicks off on August 11 at Leicester.
Jimenez played 57 matches last season, scoring 25 goals. In his previous three seasons at Benfica he only started 20 league games in total.
Nuno said yesterday: "For Raul, you look at him and you see last season he had a different season to the previous three he had before.
"It would be a big mistake, in our opinion, to force him and not give him enough time, not to completely recover, but to rest. We have to realise what we're going to do.
"Raul and Saiss are going to be with us on July 22.
"We give the same programme to every player. Every player involved in the national team, after they've finished there they have two weeks off.
"I think it's important for him and Saiss. Morgan (Gibbs-White) only started working today.
"The Portuguese players and Leander Dendoncker started on July 1, we started on June 27.
"All these adjustments are required."
