WOLVERHAMPTON Wanderers manager Vitor Pereira has allayed injury fears on Marshall Munetsi after the Warriors vice-captain was substituted at halftime in his team's draw against Everton.
The 28-year-old opened his premier league scoring account in the match shortly before halftime as he finished off a lovely slide-rule pass from Jean-Ricner Bellegarde to earn Wolves a point.
He became the English Premier League's (EPL) first Zimbabwean goalscorer since 2011 as Wolves moved six points clear of the bottom three on the log standings.
The last Zimbabwean player to score in the EPL was Benjani Mwaruwari for Blackburn Rovers, some 14 years ago.
But Munetsi’s night was cut short when Pereira substituted him at half-time.
With Zimbabwe's Fifa 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Benin and Nigeria coming up in 10 days, many Warriors fans and coach Michael Nees got worried when Munetsi was taken off for Pablo Sarabia at the interval.
Zimbabwe host Benin in Durban on March 20, before travelling to Nigeria six days later, two matches the team desperately needs to win.
Nees is expected to name his squad for the two matches on Thursday.
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Already, captain Marvelous Nakamba has been ruled out through injury.
In Pereira’s assessment of the midfielder at fulltime, it didn’t sound like a serious problem, claiming he just “felt something” and didn’t want to risk Munetsi in the second half.
“He deserved the goal but it was a pity he felt something in the first half and we cannot take risks with him,” Pereira said.
The Wolves manager also praised Munetsi, highlighting his spirit as positive and predicting to build on his first strike at Molineux.
“He has the spirit that I like in a player,” Pereira said. “He did everything to help the team and he will score more goals.”
Wolves travel to Southampton in the Premier League next weekend before the international break and hopefully, Munetsi is fully recovered to feature for the Warriors.
