Revealed: Why Bruno Lage and Ki-Jana Hoever's relationship reached boiling point at Wolves

Ki-Jana Hoever faces a fight to rebuild his Wolverhampton Wanderers career after Bruno Lage publicly shamed him in a press conference following the defeat to Crystal Palace on Saturday.

The Dutch youngster, who was signed from Liverpool for around £10m in 2020, was only playing at right wing-back due to an injury to Lage’s first choice Nelson Semedo.

He went down injured after 20 minutes and needed to be replaced by Jonny Castro Otto, who Lage overlooked in favour of Hoever due to fitness concerns following his 10-month lay-off with a knee injury.

Lage was simply asked for the initial diagnosis on Hoever’s injury five minutes into his post-match press conference. What followed wasn’t quite a character assassination, but Lage clearly felt it was the right time to air his grievances with some of the club’s youngsters.

“This warning is not only for Ki, it’s for all the kids we have in our team,” said Lage, during part of his long, scathing assessment of Hoever’s application.

“They need to understand that I don’t waste time with guys who don’t work hard every day to improve.”

People can speculate over the other players Lage is referring to, but the fact of the matter is that Hoever was the only one named. Sources close to the 20-year-old admit Lage’s words 'made for grim reading' and accept Hoever’s future at Molineux has immediately been plunged into doubt.

How many players come back from such a public dressing down?

This wasn’t just a spur-of-the-moment thing from Lage, who has grown frustrated with Hoever behind-the-scenes for a number of weeks. The question on every supporter’s lips after reading those harsh words on Saturday evening was, ‘Well, why play him then?’

If the Wolves boss believed Jonny was capable