Bruno Lage reveals he wanted to sign Diego Costa for Wolves last summer

After Sasa Kalajdzic suffered a serious knee injury on his Wolves debut, the club acted fast to bring in free agent Costa to provide competition for Raul Jimenez.

The 33-year-old was previously at Brazilian side Atletico Mineiro and Lage has admitted that he attempted to lure the forward to the club last summer before he moved back to his homeland.

Lage said: “I can say now because he is here and he knows, when I received the invitation from Wolves one of the first guys I called was Joao Felix to know about Diego Costa.

“Joao said good things about him, his personality and how he played. He wanted to come back to this country to play and after what happened with Sasa, it was a time to talk with him and convince him to come to us. We know he needs time to be ready. He is fit and doesn’t have any problems, but he needs time to be fit to compete at this level.”

Lage added: “He said it’s destiny. Sixteen months ago when I thought about him we didn’t have any chance because he had a different idea for his career. I want him ready to compete at this level and I think we can bring the real Diego Costa to us. We need a reference in the box, a guy to compete with Raul (Jimenez) and Diego has the profile that we like, different to Raul.”

Jimenez pulled out of the squad to face Southampton two weeks ago with a groin injury and Lage has confirmed the striker is still unavailable and has not been training. He will join up with the Mexico national team but only for rehabilitation and he will not play, as he faces 'a few weeks' on the sidelines.

He said: “Raul is still not available and he is still not working with the team. After he was recovering, he needed to play three games in a row, then he was a bit tired – I used the term ‘chronic fatigue’ from not doing a good pre-season.

“Now he needs time to recover. He is doing some treatments, but at the moment he isn’t training with the team and isn’t available for tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, Kalajdzic has had his operation following his anterior cruciate ligament injury and Lage has given a vague timeline on his recovery, as the striker battles to be fit for the back end of the season.

“The operation was good,” Lage added.

“I can see him in the building. He is enthusiastic to recover, but in the same way it was very disappointing. I have been here for 15 months asking for a striker with a different profile to Raul and he just played 45 minutes for us. I can see him every time here in the building with motivation to return as soon as possible. These kinds of injuries are at least six months, then after it will depend on him and how he recovers. At least six months in front of him.”

A statement from Wolves also confirmed that the injury sustained by Kalajdzic 'typically takes 9 months' to recover from.

Meanwhile, the club also said they hope to have Chiquinho back for next pre-season after his ACL injury which 'also involved other knee ligaments'.