McCarthy won't back down

Wolves manager Mick McCarthy is refusing to back down in his claim that he was right to make wholesale changes to the side that lost to Manchester United in midweek.

McCarthy has found himself at the centre of a storm and has been asked by the Premier League to explain why he made ten changes to his starting line-up for Tuesday's 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford.

The Molineux boss claimed he needed to rest tired players ahead of Sunday's clash with Burnley after the defeat to the champions and still believes his decision will prove to be the right one for his club.

Goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann was the sole survivor from the Wolves side that defeated Tottenham at the weekend.

"People may think the players look fresh, but they don't see the physio's room of a morning," McCarthy told the Birmingham Mail.

"Players don't just recover overnight from these games - they take a hell of a lot out of them and it takes a lot to recuperate from them.

"Most of them have got tight hamstrings, tight calves and tight groins.

"There are a lot of fatigue-based niggles and playing another game within three or four days increases the likelihood of those becoming proper injuries that will mean them missing games.

"You can't just keep whipping them and whipping them all the time.

"At some stage, someone is going to pull up and I just don't want that to happen with the games we've got coming up."