Conor Coady is Wolves' marathon man: Their tireless captain has played every minute of 54-week Europa League campaign and hasn't missed any league action in almost three years... so, can he lead them to glory at the end of an extraordinary season?

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How appropriate Wolves are up against Greek opposition in Olympiacos as their marathon season enters its 54th week.

Their gruelling, Covid-interrupted campaign began way back on July 25 last year and continues on Thursday night at Molineux as they try and summon the energy for a Europa League sprint finish.

And maybe a bit of the spirit of Pheidippides - the fabled Greek soldier and messenger who ran the 26.2 miles to Athens to report news of victory over the Persians in the Battle of Marathon in 490BC - lives on in Wolves captain Conor Coady.

Wolves captain Conor Coady is preparing for a final push in a marathon season for his team

The Wolves defender in training at Molineux ahead of Thursday's return leg with Olympiacos

The 27-year-old has played every single minute of every Wolves game in the Premier League, FA Cup and Europa League this season since they started with a 2-0 win over Crusaders in the second qualifying round on July 25.

The only games Coady has been spared were two ties in the Carabao Cup, but the defender's marathon endeavours go back a long way before that.

The 4,950 minutes he has completed this season - plus much more if you include stoppage time - came off the back of a 2018-19 campaign in which he played every competitive minute for Wolves in league and cup.

And the last time Coady was absent from a Wolves league fixture was way back on September 30, 2017, when a suspension for a red card kept him out of a 4-0 win over Burton Albion in the Championship.

That's effectively three solid years of football for a player who revels in being Nuno Espirito Santo's lieutenant on the pitch.

How the Europa League draw will map out for Wolves if they can overcome Olympiacos

Coady is Nuno Espirito Santo's lieutenant on the field and Wolves' most vocal leader

Coady was originally a midfielder but was converted to a centre-half under Nuno's guidance

Having slipped to a disappointing seventh-place finish in the Premier League, Wolves will have to win the Europa League this month to play continental football again next season.

Truth be told, perhaps it's just as well they didn't finish sixth. Tottenham did, but Arsenal's subsequent FA Cup victory left Jose Mourinho's side facing the unenviable prospect of three Europa League qualifying games to even make the group stage.

Wolves know all about that, having overcome Crusaders of Northern Ireland, Pyunik Yerevan of Armenia and Italians Torino roughly a year ago.

They then finished second in a group containing Braga, Slovan Bratislava and Besiktas before seeing off Espanyol in the last-32.

A 1-1 draw in the first leg with Olympiacos on March 12 - a fixture played amid a dawning realisation that coronavirus was about to change the world as we know it - means Wolves are favourites to advance at Molineux on Thursday.

Achieve that and they'll be off to their ninth different country on this elongated cross-continental adventure in Germany for the finals next week.

Roma or Sevilla will await them in the last eight in Duisburg and there could be a collision course with Manchester United, the tournament favourites, in the semi-finals.

Only Harry Maguire, the United skipper, can realistically catch Coady in terms of minutes played this season. After a full 90 against LASK on Wednesday night, Maguire is up to 4,752 minutes for the season, 198 shy of Coady.

But one distinction that can't be taken away from former Liverpool man Coady is the fact he is the only outfield player to feature in every minute of the past two Premier League seasons.

Wolves began their Europa League campaign with a 2-0 win over Crusaders on July 25, 2019

A third qualifying round trek to Armenia to play Pyunik was Wolves' longest Europa journey

After 111 consecutive league outings, Coady is also closing in on the Wolves club record of 127 held by Phil Parkes - a goalkeeper - in the early 1970s.

A midfielder during the first part of his career, Coady was only converted to a centre-half by 'luck' when Nuno was short of players in a training session not long after he took over in 2017.

He's since looked a natural there amongst Wolves' favoured three-man defence and is always one of the most vocal on the pitch.

'It says a lot about his professionalism,' said Nuno when asked about Coady's constant leadership last week.

Diogo Jota scored as Wolves thrashed Espanyol 4-0 in the first leg of their last-32 fixture

Pedro Neto scored to earn Wolves a 1-1 draw in their behind closed doors game at Olympiacos

Manager Nuno Espirito Santo speaks to his players during Wednesday's training session

'He's our captain and he leads by example, every day. Conor has been amazing.

'He's very important. His voice is something that the team is used to, the team needs and he has to be even louder and more vocal if possible, because communication is a big tool in a game.

'It's about the right message in the right moments. I think Conor has been able to do that.'

As Wolves pick up their European ambitions, the ironic thing for their weary warriors is that they want their season to continue for as long as possible in order to secure a trophy more than a year in the winning.