Wolves coach Gary O’Neil has admitted that Zimbabwean youngster Tawanda Chirewa is close to his first team breakthrough.

Chirewa has been impressive with the Wolves U21, having scored a couple of goals for the side across all competitions.

He has also been training with the senior team in recent weeks and sat on the bench in the senior team’s last two matches.

Speaking to Express and Star website, O’Neil said he has been impressed by the youngster’s training ground form.

“It’s really important, I’ve moved quite a few of the lads up to train with us,” O’Neil said on the academy pathway, as cited on the website.

“I’m keen for the academy to provide us as many good players as they can because it’s the best route, it doesn’t cost you too much. They just need to be good enough and need to be ready.

“We give them every opportunity. Tawanda has progressed really well over the last few weeks and looks comfortable now with the first team.

“He gets into a little scrap with a few of them now, when he wouldn’t have before, he’d have probably moved aside.

“The academy has produced some really good ones, hopefully they can keep doing so and while I’m here they’ll have a really good pathway through to the first team.

“Of course, the issue we’ve had around Financial Fair Play in the summer means that there wasn’t a massive influx of new players, so there’s an opportunity for the boys from the academy to have a impact.”