It’s been more than a year since Meritan Shabani made his ill-fated debut for Wolverhampton Wanderers, but he’s finally recovered from the Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury that kept him sidelined for nearly 13 months.
Last season, the 21-year-old replaced Morgan Gibbs-White in the second half of our EFL Cup win over Reading (September 25, 2019) but lasted only ten minutes before coming off with ligament damage after landing awkwardly.
Shabani has worked hard to get back into the first-team and now could finally add to his one appearance in a Wolves shirt.
What’s his current status?
Shabani returned from injury in March and was put through his paces on our Compton training ground. The German midfielder didn’t have any U23 games to participate in as the reserve season was cut short in Spring, but he built up his fitness in the months that followed and is now battling for a place in our squad.
Shabani played over an hour in our reserve team’s 3-2 win over Burnley (September 16), 90 minutes in our 2-2 draw with Leeds United (September 18), 90 minutes in our 3-0 win over Stoke City (September 28) and 90 minutes in our EFL Trophy win over Bradford (October 6).
The 21-year-old was an unused substitute in our first-team’s EFL Cup defeat to Stoke City (September 17) and 4-0 defeat to West Ham United (September 27). You’d think we should see more of him after the international break.
Will he feature much under Nuno Espirito Santo?
I think he’ll get some playing time but may not feature heavily due to the stiff competition for places. Shabani currently has Ruben Neves, Joao Moutinho, Leander Dendoncker and new-boy Vitinha standing in his way of a starting place, so he’ll have to work hard to get the nod from Nuno. Time will tell.
It’s fantastic seeing the German back in the squad, however, so he’s certainly going in the right direction. The fact we didn’t seek a loan move for Shabani suggests we do have plans for him this season too, so he should be given the opportunity to prove his worth.
