An injury to new signing Sasa Kalajdzic appears to have paved the way for Diego Costa to secure an unlikely return to the Premier League.

Original article published 8 September 2022

Wolves paid around £15million to bring the rangy Austrian forward to the club from Stuttgart and he was thrown straight into the starting XI for his debut against Southampton on Saturday.

However, what should have been a day of excitement and optimism for the new man quickly turned into one of despair as he was brought off at half time with an injury - subsequent scans showed it was a tear to anterior cruciate knee ligament.

With Wolves one of the more goal-shy teams in the league, Bruno Lage looks like he is going to turn to the free agent market and lure Costa back to English football.

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Tough times up top of Wolves

Last season, Wolves only managed to score only 38 goals in the Premier League, the worst record of the 17 sides that retained their top-flight status.

It was generally a positive season for Lage in his first year as head coach with the Molineux club building their success on the back of a very solid defensive unit.

However, it did lead to some frustrations in terms of the style of football being turned out - they failed to score in 16 of their 38 matches and the top scorer in the Premier League was Raul Jimenez who managed only a measly six.

Kalajdzic was brought in to provide competition to Jimenez and South Korean forward Hwang Hee-chan who also struggled in front of goal.

That will have to be put on hold though with the 25-year-old set to miss most of the season after suffering the injury during Saturday's 1-0 win against the Saints - a result which put Wolves up to 14th after a first win of the season and they are priced at 1/6 to stay up and 4/1 to go down.

Costa to add bite to attack

When at his absolute best in the Premier League for Chelsea under Jose Mourinho, Costa was a colossus of a forward.

He didn't have the all-round game of a Harry Kane or the rapid brain of a Sergio Aguero but he was a massive handful up front and had the ability to wind up defenders and get the better of them.

Occasionally, he would overstep the mark and French magazine L'Equipe actually named him the "Most Hated" footballer in 2015 on account of his fiery temperament.

However, his goalscoring record speaks for itself - for Chelsea he scored 59 goals in 120 games and won two Premier League titles and a League Cup.

Currently, he is a free agent after leaving Atletico Mineiro in his homeland of Brazil in January - meaning he has gone over half a year without any competitive football.

He will take time to get up to speed at Wolves, and is likely only to serve as a squad player, but he could be a shrewd capture all things considered.

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Big onus on Jimenez

It was only two or three years ago that Jimenez was being linked with moves to the likes of Manchester United and Tottenham - by the end of the 2019/20 season, he had scored 27 goals in 55 games across all competitions.

However, his sickening skull fracture the following season at Arsenal has severely hampered his career and he hasn't looked like the same player since.

Injuries are beginning to pile up with the latest coming on Saturday as he was withdrawn from the starting XI due to a muscle complaint in the warm-up.

With Kalajdzic out for the foreseeable and Costa needing time to get back to full fitness, Wolves are going to be as reliant as ever upon the Mexican marksman.

He has historically been a physical forward and needs to rediscover that presence in order for Wolves to be successful, otherwise, there will be genuine worries about where the goals will come from this season.

Their next Premier League game comes on Saturday as they make the tough-looking trip to Anfield to face Liverpool - Wolves are available at 10/1 to win with Liverpool priced at 1/4 and a draw can be backed at 5/1.