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Ian Evatt has revealed that Gethin Jones will see a specialist to determine the extent of the ankle injury he sustained on Saturday at Harrogate.
The full-back looks set to be side-lined until the New Year after a collision with striker Mark Beck which left him with serious damage to the lower leg and ankle joint.
And it is the latter which most concerns the Bolton head coach, who explained after last night’s 2-1 defeat at Shrewsbury in the EFL Trophy that Jones will undergo further tests in the next 48 hours.
“It doesn’t look great, if we’re being honest, it looks like he’s got damage to the surface of his joint,” he said.
“We will have a CT scan tomorrow (Wednesday) and he’ll see a specialist on Thursday, so we will know more then, but I certainly wouldn’t expect to see him this side of Christmas.”
The injuries continued to mount up last night as Tom White left the Montgomery Waters Stadium in a knee brace. The midfielder, on loan from Blackburn Rovers, is expected to have scans in the next couple of days to determine whether there is damage to his ligaments.
Evatt has faced a string of absences as he tries to bring a team of free agents up to a similar speed – with Shaun Miller, Alex Baptiste and Reiss Greenidge all sitting out recently.
Dennis Politic, Muhammadu Faal and Liam Edwards have also been out long-term.
Evatt is determined not to let the issues demotivate his players.
“That’s football, it happens,” he said. “It’s a common theme with what’s happening. Obviously Gethin’s and Tom’s are slightly different, more freak injuries with Gethin’s.
"The others we’ve had are all muscular injuries that are down to lockdown and the length of time of not playing football. That’s going to be the same for everybody.”
After making several changes to his team last night, Evatt believes a few of the younger players put a good case to be included in the squad for this weekend’s home game against Grimsby.
“There’s always things to think about,” he said. “Obviously the league campaign is the most important thing but we saw this game as opportunity to have a look at the other ones and they’ve done themselves no harm, especially the younger ones.
"They’ve really excelled and done really well against a strong League One outfit, should have won the game so there’s lots of positives to take. This club is heading in the right direction, we’ll go again on Saturday."
A mixture of scholars and Under-18s were drafted into the squad at Shrewsbury including Finlay Lockett – who was given his first start for the club – Regan Riley, Maxwell Conway, Matthew Tweedley and Kian Le Fondre.
Had Le Fondre – second cousin of ex-Bolton striker Adam - entered the fray he would have been the youngest player in Bolton’s history at 15 years and 248 days.
Evatt is keen to give the next generation of Wanderers a push.
“I said to them there, and we had a 15-year-old kid on the bench, that’s where they need to get to. That’s the standard whether it’s in the warm-up, on a matchday or in training. It’s the direction this club is heading and we want to produce our own,” he said.
“This club has a good youth system which has produced some very good players over a period of time and we want more moving forward. We have a few with a bright future, definitely.”
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The full-back looks set to be side-lined until the New Year after a collision with striker Mark Beck which left him with serious damage to the lower leg and ankle joint.
And it is the latter which most concerns the Bolton head coach, who explained after last night’s 2-1 defeat at Shrewsbury in the EFL Trophy that Jones will undergo further tests in the next 48 hours.
“It doesn’t look great, if we’re being honest, it looks like he’s got damage to the surface of his joint,” he said.
“We will have a CT scan tomorrow (Wednesday) and he’ll see a specialist on Thursday, so we will know more then, but I certainly wouldn’t expect to see him this side of Christmas.”
The injuries continued to mount up last night as Tom White left the Montgomery Waters Stadium in a knee brace. The midfielder, on loan from Blackburn Rovers, is expected to have scans in the next couple of days to determine whether there is damage to his ligaments.
Evatt has faced a string of absences as he tries to bring a team of free agents up to a similar speed – with Shaun Miller, Alex Baptiste and Reiss Greenidge all sitting out recently.
Dennis Politic, Muhammadu Faal and Liam Edwards have also been out long-term.
Evatt is determined not to let the issues demotivate his players.
“That’s football, it happens,” he said. “It’s a common theme with what’s happening. Obviously Gethin’s and Tom’s are slightly different, more freak injuries with Gethin’s.
"The others we’ve had are all muscular injuries that are down to lockdown and the length of time of not playing football. That’s going to be the same for everybody.”
After making several changes to his team last night, Evatt believes a few of the younger players put a good case to be included in the squad for this weekend’s home game against Grimsby.
“There’s always things to think about,” he said. “Obviously the league campaign is the most important thing but we saw this game as opportunity to have a look at the other ones and they’ve done themselves no harm, especially the younger ones.
"They’ve really excelled and done really well against a strong League One outfit, should have won the game so there’s lots of positives to take. This club is heading in the right direction, we’ll go again on Saturday."
A mixture of scholars and Under-18s were drafted into the squad at Shrewsbury including Finlay Lockett – who was given his first start for the club – Regan Riley, Maxwell Conway, Matthew Tweedley and Kian Le Fondre.
Had Le Fondre – second cousin of ex-Bolton striker Adam - entered the fray he would have been the youngest player in Bolton’s history at 15 years and 248 days.
Evatt is keen to give the next generation of Wanderers a push.
“I said to them there, and we had a 15-year-old kid on the bench, that’s where they need to get to. That’s the standard whether it’s in the warm-up, on a matchday or in training. It’s the direction this club is heading and we want to produce our own,” he said.
“This club has a good youth system which has produced some very good players over a period of time and we want more moving forward. We have a few with a bright future, definitely.”
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