Wolves head coach Gary O’Neil admits he cannot afford to gamble with the fitness of key players in the Carabao Cup.

A tough start to the Premier League season has left his side with just one point after difficult encounters against Arsenal, Chelsea and Newcastle but with the likes of Aston Villa, Liverpool and Manchester City to come before the end of October O’Neil is already thinking ahead.

That means there are likely to be significant changes ahead for Wednesday’s tie at Brighton as the Wolves boss protects key figures to boost their league campaign.

“It’s a game we want to win but a game we will probably need to make changes,” said O’Neil off the back of Sunday’s 2-1 home defeat to Newcastle.

“There are certain areas in the squad we can’t afford to pick up injuries in: Daws (Craig Dawson) will be high risk for Wednesday.”

“It would be tricky to put too much on Daws. Yerson (Mosquera) has some issues with his calf and we were slightly concerned about him going into the Newcastle game, so it would be a big risk to put him out there.”

“Toti (Gomes) will probably miss it with his hamstring issues. There are some decisions which need to be made but I’m not willing to risk really important players to us in key areas of the pitch with a big game coming up against Aston Villa.”

“We could see young lads at centre-back at Brighton.”

Just one point from their opening four league matches has left Wolves in the bottom three of the fledgling table their only win came in the Carabao Cup against Championship Burnley but O’Neil is remaining positive and hopes the players are too.

“There is a few things that impact confidence: one is results, the second is performance and you can take belief from the way you played and the lads understand that,” he added.

“They know, especially with the draw being away to Brighton, with the tough Premier League games we have had we have to keep giving our best all the time.”