Wolves keeper Rui Patricio adamant inspirational Carl Ikeme still No.1

Ikeme retired in 2018 due to his battle with leukaemia and since then Wolves’ keepers Patricio and John Ruddy have refused to take the shirt out of respect to him. Ikeme is now in remission and Patricio says he is an inspiration to all.

He said: “Without doubt for me he is still the number one and he deserves this shirt because he had a problem that can happen to any of us .

“Carl is an example because of the way he turned around the situation and I would say that I look up to him quite a lot.

“He was here (at the training ground), even last week, he was at the doctors and when I was looking at him, I thought he was a person to look up to, because of how hard he worked and how he dealt with this problem.

“This example doesn’t just apply to people, it applies to life, so number one is his for what happened. He deserves it, it is his own, because he is an example, once again, of how we look at life.”

In Patricio’s first campaign at Molineux, Wolves finished seventh in the Premier League and qualified for the Europa League.

They are now sixth in the table and preparing for a Europa knockout clash with Espanyol in February.

And as Wolves prepare to host champions Manchester City tomorrow, Patricio is hungry for more.

He said: “Without a doubt, this season has been amazing. This season has been better than the previous one last year, because – with the same amount of games that we had last year we still have one extra point. Obviously we want to do more, we want to be better and we want to grow more.”

Ikeme hung up his boots a month after Patricio joined the club in June 2018 from Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon.

That seventh-placed finish was Patricio’s first season outside of Portugal.

And he says he feels more settled this term as he continues to build on his language skills.

He said: “Last year was my first season here in the club so everything was different everything was new.

“I have always played in Portugal and only last year did I changed, and it has been a completely new world, a new home, a new club, new people to handle with.

“It has been a lot of change and obviously the language is one of them, as well.

“This season I feel I am more at ease with everything because obviously this year it is a new year and whatever situation I am facing in a game might have been one that I have already dealt with.

“The way I perceive the games are obviously very different.

“And this season I am doing better.

“But I also want to do more to grow as a player. I want to learn to speak more English.

“I am happy with the way I speak English right now, but I wouldn’t say it is enough for an interview. “But still I feel more at home this year without a doubt.”