McCarthy plans to keep O'Hara

(GETTY IMAGES)

Mick McCarthy, the Wolves manager, has revealed his desire to sign on loan Tottenham midfielder Jamie O'Hara on a permanent basis. But any deal for a player valued in excess of £5m would be dependent on Wolves maintaining their Premier League status.

The 24-year-old moved to Molineux in January with a view to completing a permanent move if it suited both parties. He has scored twice in four games and has already played an important part in the battle for survival.

McCarthy said: "I want to sign him and I think Jamie would be happy to come. It will all be dependent on whether we can offer him Premier League football though. If we were safe there would be no doubt that a deal would be done. Jamie wants to come and we want to sign him."

McCarthy is keen to complete the deal after losing out in the race to sign Steve Sidwell from Aston Villa in January. Sidwell had agreed to move to Wolves but was prised away at the 11th hour by Fulham.

McCarthy said: "You can have a deal agreed on anything but, until it's signed somebody can scupper it. Jamie is here until the end of the season, for the next nine games. But, if it all could be done tomorrow, I'd sign him if we could."

Midfielder David Edwards will be out of action for at least a month with a back injury. The Wales international has suffered a stress reaction in his spine and now needs to rest before undergoing a scan.

Edwards has been dogged by various injury problems this season, including thigh and hamstring setbacks. He impressed when he returned to action 11 days ago in the 4-0 win over Blackpool but missed the weekend draw with Tottenham and now faces another spell on the side-lines. Wolves' head of medical department Steve Kemp said: "Dave complained of lower back stiffness after the Blackpool game. As a result, he had a scan which showed up the stress reaction in his lumbar spine.

"With these findings it's not worth risking him carrying on playing with the injury as it could develop into something more serious. We now intend to manage the injury by treating Dave over the next month after which we will re-assess."