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Conor Coady missed first Wolves game in three years, here’s why he avoided Southampton stalemate

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Conor Coady missed his first league game in more than three years for Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday night.

The 27-year-old was left out of the starting eleven and matchday squad by Nuno Espirito Santo as Wolves drew 1-1 with Southampton.

He wasn’t suspended, he wasn’t carrying an injury and he wasn’t dropped for poor form, so why did Coady miss out?

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Why Coady avoided facing Southampton

After coming into contact with somebody who tested positive for Coronavirus, Coady was forced to withdraw from the England national team and had to quarantine as per Government rules.

The Daily Mail note that the 27-year-old tested negative for the virus himself but still had to remain isolated until Sunday. And although Coady trained on his own ahead of the visit of Southampton, he still missed out.

Nuno was forced into naming Rayan Ait Nouri as a conventional left-back, Willy Boly & Max Kilman at centre-back and Nelson Semedo at right-back against the Saints. Although Leander Dendoncker was available to fill in at centre-back, Nuno opted to play him in midfield, so could we stick to a back-four in our next encounter?

When will he return?

Nuno has already Coady will be back ahead of Sunday’s meeting with Arsenal, so it looks to be only one game that he’ll miss. He said: “Yes, Conor will start the next training session with us.

“He spent so many days in self-isolation, after he made two tests negative, Conor already had the virus, so protocols make it very hard for all the teams. So, Conor, yes.”

He could start alongside Kilman and Boly in a three-man defence on the weekend, or he could be named in a duo. Time will tell.

Coady has made 244 appearances in all competitions since joining from Huddersfield Town in 2015, scoring two goals with seven assists.

The England international had gone more than three years without missing a league game (121) for Wolves (October 14, 2017 – November 8, 2020), but his hopes of breaking the consecutive appearance record have now ended six games short.

It’s a blow for Coady, but it was sensible to be safe and we managed to rescue a point against an in-form Southampton side.

In other news, Wolverhampton Wanderers tried to sign Neco Williams to replace Matt Doherty but failed

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Sports journalist who is an avid football fan, enjoys debunking transfer rumours, loves to write pieces about players out in the cold and takes a large amount of pride getting a predicted XI 100% correct.