Wolves attacker Nathan Fraser will spend the 2024/25 season on loan at Belgian side Zulte Waregem.
The Wolves Academy product has been at the club since the age of seven and stepped into the first-team last season, making his debut in August and going on to play a further nine times across the campaign.
That debut against Blackpool in the Carabao Cup was a goal scoring one for Fraser, who also hit a vital equaliser at home to Brentford in the Emirates FA Cup back in January.
His efforts were rewarded with a new long-term deal in the summer, keeping him at Molineux until 2028, and he’ll now look to continue his development with regular football in Belgium.
Zulte Waregem operate in the second tier, having lost out in the play-offs last season, and will face Deinze in their second game of the season this coming weekend.
Head of professional football development Matt Jackson said: “It’s great for Nathan that he's going to expand his horizons. We're really proud he’s going out there to challenge himself. It’s a big club in Belgium, fighting to get promotion again. He’s challenging himself in a football sense as well as a life sense, it is such a positive for us here at Wolves and we wish him the very best of luck.
“We assessed all of the options for the players, as we always do, looking at the way he's going to fit into the playing style out of there, the way that the team plays. He's visited so he knows the town, he’s seen the stadium and he's met the staff.
“They’ll want to get back to that top tier and Nathan can play a big part in that, while improving his own game. We’ve tasked him to continue to improve physically, because he's had that taste of first-team football and knows what it's about. He knows what he has to improve on to come back and get in the team regularly.
“We almost had to throw him out of the training ground through the summer because he worked so hard, and he's so professional. It's brilliant now that he's been patient enough to come up with this perfect opportunity and can just go and unleash himself.”
The loan away is Fraser’s first of his career, having transitioned in the Wolves first-team last season. He played six times in the Premier League – once from the start against Fulham – and now minutes on the pitch are the priority for Fraser, according to Jackson.
“Regular football is a huge part of his development. He fast forwarded to our first-team and he took his opportunity because it was there. He certainly didn't let himself down in any way, but players learn by playing 90 minutes on a regular basis. That's where you pick up the game craft that's required to have a professional career, and that's what we have to get into him right now.
“He's seen what the very best look like at Premier League level and he now knows he has to replicate that in his own game and do it on a consistent basis. The club's got a great support network and they've been very professional in their dealings with us, so we can't endorse it enough.
“Players always dictate their own futures with their performances out on loan. We've seen the way that it's worked over recent years for Morgan and Ryan Giles and people like that, and Nathan should be no different at all in trying to define his future with success from this loan spell.”
