Wolverhampton Wanderers

Jonny banished from Wolverhampton Wanderers first team until end of January

By Darren Plant, Senior Reporter | 08 December 2023

Jonny banished from Wolves first team until end of January

Sporting director Matt Hobbs reveals that defender Jonny will not train with the first team until February at the earliest after a training-ground incident last week.

Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Jonny has been banished from first-team training until at least the end of January.

The versatile full-back is one of the club's longest-serving players, initially moving to Molineux in 2018 on a season-long deal from Celta Vigo.

However, two serious knee injuries have contributed to the Spain international dropping down the pecking order, and he has been restricted to just one substitute outing in the Premier League and two EFL Cup starts this season.

As it stands, it appears highly likely that they will prove to be his final games for Wolves after what has been described as "a training-ground incident" took place last week.

While the nature of the incident has not been revealed, it has led to Jonny not featuring in Gary O'Neil's last two senior squads for the games with Arsenal and Burnley.

Wolves have now taken the steps to announce that the 29-year-old will remain unavailable for selection until the end of January and would train away from the first team.

Wolverhampton Wanderers head coach Gary O'Neil on September 23, 2023. © Reuters

Sporting director Matt Hobbs told the club's official website: "As people have become aware, there was an incident with Jonny last week, and since then I've sat down with him, he's apologised, and we have outlined the way forward.

"We had a conversation and have agreed that at least until the end of the January window he won't be part of the first-team group. He will still be training at the club and, if he chooses, he can play for the under-21s to keep up his match sharpness, and I think, knowing him, he'll probably do that.

"This is a guy who has been a great servant to the football club. One incident doesn't define the role he's played during the successful times and the man he is day to day around the place. Everybody has moments and that's all it was, but we have to deal with it and move forward for the wider group."

He added: "It might seem big because someone's been removed from the group, but it's not. When you're trying to create a culture, keeping everything aligned, sometimes things happen which aren't what you want to be and where we want to go.

"Now it's dealt with. It's not something Gary's had to deal with, we've dealt with it as a football club and allowed Gary to focus on getting the team ready for the important games coming up."

Although Jonny has over 18 months remaining on his contract, the expectation is that Wolves will now look to facilitate his departure - either on a permanent or temporary basis - over the coming weeks.