PREVIEW WOLVES V NEWCASTLE

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• O’Neil confirmed Joe Hodge has had shoulder surgery and will be unavailable for two to three months. Fellow midfielder Jean-Ricner Bellegarde will be checked on Saturday morning and could be available, but not for the full match.

• He said he has “no idea” on the eligibility of Sandro Tonali at Newcastle, but that Wolves “have prepared for it to be him or [Sean] Longstaff anyway, so it hasn’t done too much to the preparation we have done”.

• On the returns of Mario Lemina and Nelson Semedo from suspensions, O’Neil said it “will be big” to have them back, but that their opponents are still “one of the toughest tests in the league at the moment, arguably the toughest with some of the results and scorelines they have had – they will be a really tough test”.

• He added: “[It will be] a good challenge for us, the boys are looking forward to it, I’m looking forward to it and it will be good to see how far we have come.”

• Asked about goalkeeper Jose Sa’s character and the impact he has, O’Neil said: “He’s been very good for the group, he is an interesting character and has a lot of character. You need those players, especially in goal sometimes. You underestimate the impact a goalkeeper can have on the team, especially when the team starts to go under a bit and go through tough situations – the goalkeepers tend to grow.”

• On the importance of managing and reassuring players, like the chat he had with Tommy Doyle, he said: “I try to do all of the job all the time, managing the mentality of the group, making sure the ones who haven’t maybe had as many minutes as they deserve are OK and making sure those who are playing all the time are OK, making sure the tactics are right and it’s always all of it, to try to have a 360 view.”

• He added: “There is a lot of this job that people don’t see, it takes a lot, especially the way I choose to do it, you try to cover everything always but I love every moment of it.”