Saman Ghoddos could feature for Brentford against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.

The 30-year-old returned to the Robert Rowan Performance Centre on Thursday morning following Iran’s 3-2 Asian Cup semi-final defeat to Qatar the day before.

Ghoddos has made 14 Premier League appearances this season, featuring in midfield and as part of the Bees’ backline.

“With Saman, it’s good and bad,” said Bees boss Thomas Frank.

“We’re happy that he’s back and available for us but of course we wanted him to get to the final and win.

“There’s time difference and travel, but he should be available for Saturday.”

Frank Onyeka and Yoane Wissa remain on international duty and are therefore unavailable for Saturday’s trip to Molineux.

Onyeka’s Nigeria will face host nation Ivory Coast in the Africa Cup of Nations final on Sunday (8pm kick-off GMT) having overcome South Africa on penalties on Wednesday.

Wissa and DR Congo will line up against South Africa in the AFCON third-place play-off on Saturday (8pm kick-off GMT) after their 1-0 defeat to Ivory Coast in the semi-final.

While Brentford have won only one of their last eight Premier League games, Frank remained upbeat in his pre-match press conference on Thursday morning.

“I like to win football matches and I’m very aware that the stats on paper are not great,” he said.

“But we look into our performances and especially the last three have been very positive. We got the win over Nottingham and then faced two of the best clubs in the world – away to Tottenham and at home to City, the best team in the world.

“We did a lot of things right and we need to look into that, but we also need to look into what we can do better.”

He added: “One thing we have been very good at has been defending, it’s been a big focus since I took over five years ago when we were a Championship team that was free-flowing and very good going forward, and we kept that and were also very solid at the back.

“We’re conceding too many goals, but it’s never black and white. In football we try to do black and white, but we are the fifth lowest on xG [expected goals] conceded, which is a number I’m happy to see.

“I would love us to be fifth lowest on actual goals, but some of these things are linked.

“Sometimes it’s not going the right way for you, and we also need to look into what we can do to avoid goals.

“I think, for example, the three City goals that we could have avoided on a top day. So we just need to hit that top level, but I see signs of us going in the right direction.”