Nuno Espirito Santo Allays Fears That Wolves Could Suffer Burnout From Europa League Exploits

Nuno Espirito Santo has dismissed fears that his side could suffer early burnout, with Wolves on the brink of reaching the Europa League group stage.

The Portuguese boss guided his side to an impressive 3-2 win at Torino in their Europa League play-off first leg on Thursday, with Wanderers now favourites to reach the group stages ahead of next week’s second leg at Molineux.

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Burnley provide the weekend's test for Nuno's men, but the Portuguese tactician is convinced that his side can handle the rigours of domestic and European competition - despite Wolves having one of the smallest squads in the Premier League.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference, the former Porto boss said: “We didn’t rest anybody. That is not the idea. We put out the team that we considered the 11 to start that particular game, so now we have to recover and prepare.

“We have a training session Saturday and will prepare another team but is never about resting. It is about choosing and taking the right decisions and the players being all available is the best thing that we have.”

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Gleison Bremer’s own goal and strikes from Raul Jimenez and Diogo Jota earned Wolves victory in Turin, but Nuno is adamant that the tie is still alive after Andrea Belotti’s late penalty reduced Torino's arrears heading into the second leg.

“It’s very far from being over, it will be a big challenge next Thursday. We need to recover very well, it has been a very tight schedule,” added Nuno.

“The most important job now is to recover well and rest and be ready to compete on Sunday again against a very tough team. We do recovery immediately after the game is over, in the dressing room, all these things we do to help the players.

“We go again. All these things are required to put your body ready to go again.”