Paul Lambert is pleased to see Mike Williamson back in action and working towards first team availability – as he also runs the rule over Ethan Ebanks-Landell.
Williamson, absent for over a year with a troublesome tendon injury, came through 45 minutes for the Under-23s in Monday’s game with West Ham at Telford.
Whilst Ebanks-Landell, enjoying an excellent loan spell with Sheffield United, is also back at Compton Park for a couple of days training as Lambert assesses his central defensive options.
“It’s huge for Mike, first and foremost,” said Lambert.
“It’s about building him up.
“I know him from my Wycombe days, I know it’s a few years ago but he was excellent for me and went on to have a fantastic career.
“Hopefully he’s going to stay injury free because he has the experience that you ask for.
“Touch wood he’s over hs injury now.
“We’re having a game here because the under-23s shut down which is a bad time for Williamson and Joe Mason, Lee Evans, people like that.
“They need game time.
“If we can keep him fit hopefully Mike will be o-k.”
Lambert has already seen Ebanks-Landell in competitive action for the Blades against Walsall, but wanted to see how he slotted in alongside his Wolves team-mates back in training.
“I wanted to see Ethan for a couple of days,” he explained.
“I’ve been really impressed by his demeanour and his talking on the training pitch.
“He’s our player. I went to watch him against Walsall, a game that they lost and he played in a back three, which we don’t.
“But I was impressed by his communication, his demeanour and his attitude, which were all excellent.
“I’ll have a look at him on Wednesday and he’ll go back to Sheffield United and I’ll try and watch him.
“I don’t want to bring him back (in January) if he’s not going to play.
“That would be detrimental to him, I want him to keep playing.”
Lambert also says there are still plenty of other discussions to be had about potential January player movements as Wolves continue to shape their plans for the transfer window.
The Head Coach has stated that he would like to work with a leaner Wolves squad over the second half of the season, but says there are no concrete plans as yet with regards to ins and outs.
But he is looking for quality rather than quantity as he aims to hone the squad.
“Things take time but if we can get one in two in that would be helpful,” says Lambert.
“We’re on the same hymn sheet (Kevin Thelwell and Jeff Shi) which is important for any football club.
“We are not going to bring in a lot of players like the summer – we need to bring one or two in who are going to play.
“Kevin and I will sit and go through which players we think can help us.”
Lambert also says there are still assessments being made about which players may be made available in January.
“I’ve certainly not made up my mind on who’s doing what,” he added.
“I haven’t decided who will go out and then if anyone will want to take them.”
