Willy Boly went AWOL on Sunday in an attempt to force through a move away from Wolves.
Boly failed to turn up at Molineux, even though boss Bruno Lage named the Ivory Coast defender in his matchday squad and had planned to use him as a substitute. Wolves rejected a £1million bid from Nottingham Forest for the centre-half a week ago and Lage admits he wants to leave.
“He has a proposal in his hands and he wants to go,” said Lage, who refused to say if he would fine him. “That’s my feeling when I talk to him. I’ve said to him ‘look I understand you want to move, but you need to understand that I need to put you in the squad, I need a top player like you on the bench’. After that he made his own decision.”
Ruben Neves gave Wolves the lead with a super 25-yard drive and Lage claims he is “99 per cent” confident of hanging on to his skipper, who was unsettled at the start of the summer.
“I’m 99 per cent certain he will stay for one more year,” he said. “He’s happy here and committed.”
Wolves are in the hunt for a new striker, with Stuttgart's Austria international Sasa Kalajdzic understood to be among their targets.
He, ironically, asked to be left out of the German side's draw with Koln on Sunday, amid the uncertainty over his future.
"I am waiting for another striker since my first day here," said Lage. "The way we play we need to have at least two good strikers in our squad and I have plenty of confidence the player will arrive."
Newcastle boss Eddie Howe admits he will be gutted if new £60million record signing Alexander Isak is not cleared to face Liverpool on Wednesday.
Isak had to watch from the stands at Molineux because his work permit did not come through in time and Howe hopes he will get the green light for Anfield.
“I would certainly hope so,” he said. “I don’t know if the bank holiday weekend had something to do with it, but I would be hugely disappointed if we couldn’t use him on Wednesday in some capacity.
“We’re waiting for the work permit and we’re in the Government’s hands. We were hoping to get it down before the game, but it didn’t happen.”
