Mick McCarthy has welcomed comments made by Freddy Eastwood this week about battling for his place in the Wolves starting line-up.

Whilst away on international duty with Wales, the striker insisted there was no rift between him and his club boss and that he was determined to 'knuckle down' to get his place back.

With Stephen Elliott injured, the battle is on as to whether it is Eastwood or Jay Bothroyd who gets the call to action for Saturday's Championship home game against Charlton.

McCarthy says: "I saw what Freddy said and I think it is the sensible approach. When people are not playing, it doesn't always mean there's a problem.

"You can only pick 11 players and there are plenty of games coming up.

"Jay is also competing for his chance. He has trained well recently and played for the reserves on Monday even though he hadn't been feeling well.

"This is going to be a testing period for us with Charlton at home and then two away games."