Wolves' Matt Doherty: I'm still not 100 per cent
Wing-back Matt Doherty admits he is still not at 100 per cent despite his fine form for Wolves in recent weeks.
The Irishman scored in the win over Watford, started the victory at Besiktas in the Europa League and then was solid as a substitute in the triumph at Premier League champions Manchester City.
Those performances have been more of what we have come to expect from the 27-year-old, but he insists there is plenty more to come as he is still dealing with the effects of a pre-season knee injury.
“I’ve had a knee injury that I hurt in the first weeks of the season, and then I came back way too soon on that,” said Doherty, who started the first three league games.
“It set me back, but I was still involved, I was still training on it. But it didn’t feel good, it’s only starting now to feel a bit better.
“Sometimes now, I still feel it. It’s probably 90 per cent. It doesn’t feel the same as my left one, but I can play on it.”
Doherty has struck up a promising partnership with Adama Traore on the right flank for Wolves.
The club’s longest-serving current player has also been away with Ireland over this international break.
“In another couple of weeks, it should be back to where I was,” said Doherty, who is looking to start against Southampton at Molineux on Saturday.
“It was innocuous enough. It was in pre-season and I just sort of fell over and the ground was obviously hard enough because it was summer. I just hit it too hard.
“It wasn’t like a tackle, I just skipped past someone and then I got up and ran around, but you know when something just doesn’t feel right.
“It was only three to six weeks initially, but then I came back too soon and when you keep irritating it, it just takes a lot longer. That’s been pretty much the case.”
