Hwang Hee-chan leaves with possible injury as Wolves beat Everton

Wolverhampton Wanderers' Hwang Hee-chan warms up ahead of a match against Everton at Goodison Park in Liverpool on Saturday. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Wolverhampton Wanderers edged past Everton to secure their first win of the 2023-24 campaign on Saturday, capitalizing on a late opportunity at Goodison Park in Liverpool after Hwang Hee-chan left the pitch with a possible hamstring injury.

The win, which came thanks to an 87th-minute effort from substitute Sasa Kalajdzic, is great news for the midlands club, but it's more of an indictment of Everton's performance this season than any indication that things might get better for Wolves.

Everton are now without a single point in their opening three games for the first time in more than 30 years, but it gets worse — the Toffees have not scored a single goal in those three games for the first time ever.

Wolves were not really in much better shape prior to Saturday's game. They lost their opening 1-0 to Manchester United and then managed just a single goal — scored by Korean midfielder Hwang Hee-chan — during a 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Brighton last week.

Hwang started on Saturday but did not make it past the halfway mark after coming down hard from a Nathan Patterson shortly before the break. Speaking after the game, Wolves manager Gary O’Neil confirmed that Hwang was pulled because of concerns of a potential hamstring injury, but did not give any indication of how bad it is likely to be.

"Hwang felt his hamstring in the first half so we were forced into that one," O'Neil said after the game.

Hamstring injuries are a major area of concern for Hwang, who missed a month earlier this year and was sidelined for nearly 50 days at the end of 2021 with the same issue.

Since joining Wolves in 2021, Hwang has missed a total of 17 games for both Wolves and the Korean team — 16 of those games were missed due to hamstring injuries. A hamstring injury nearly took him out of the 2022 Qatar World Cup, although the fiery midfielder known as The Bull eventually returned in the final group stage game to score the crucial goal that carried Korea through to the knockout stage.

More details on Hwang's current injuries will likely not be made available until later in the week. In the meantime, Wolves will be back in action on Tuesday as they take on Blackpool in the EFL Cup, before returning to the Premier League to face Crystal Palace on Sunday.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]