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Ian Evatt admits he is still playing a “guessing game” on his line-up for the start of the new season because of his squad’s fragmented preparations this summer.
Covid self-isolations and minor injuries have been masked somewhat by good results in the past few weeks but the Bolton boss concedes some of his key players could be some way off full fitness.
The likes of Lloyd Isgrove, Eoin Doyle, Kieran Lee and Matt Gilks have all had had time away from the training ground, while Ricardo Santos also picked up a foot injury which could keep him out of action against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.
Loanee Xav Amaechi is ruled out for a number of weeks after fracturing his metatarsal, leaving the Wanderers finding it difficult to sum up the exact state of play with a week to go before kick-off against MK Dons.
“I am pleased with how pre-season has gone but I have no idea of where we are at,” he said. “That’s for a number of reasons but mainly because we have had so many who have missed significant periods of training with self-isolating or minor injuries. They have missed a fair bit of training time.
“I am confident they are fit enough to do themselves justice when they are back and everyone is together next week but when that games kicks off it is played at a completely different tempo to pre-season, so you never really know. We’re hopeful more than anything.”
Wanderers have remained unbeaten through pre-season, with Evatt managing to rotate his squad sufficiently to prepare those players who have been able to avoid the country’s ‘Pingdemic’ and the ever-present threat of minor injuries.
The problem appears most acute on the right side of attack, where Amaechi has certainly been ruled out but the fitness of Isgrove – who has been out of action since the FC United game – is an unknown quantity.
“The biggest problem we have faced in pre-season has been unavailability,” Evatt said.
“I have no idea where we will be at, physically, especially the ones who have missed a significant period of training and game time. There are quite a few of those, and many of them are big first team players for us.
“All we can do is to prepare them as best we can. And if they are not up to speed for MK Dons then we know there will be improvement to come because they have missed that period of time. For now, we don’t know, it’s just a guessing game. We are trying to follow protocol and get them up to speed as quickly as we possibly can.”
Wanderers have implemented extra testing on the training ground to ensure there are no breakouts which could cause major issues in the coming week.
It leaves Evatt with some thinking to do ahead of the final dress rehearsal on Saturday – and he believes the whole of football will be keeping their fingers crossed until self-isolation rules are potentially relaxed in a few weeks.
“At the moment we can’t plan too far ahead because things are changing day-to-day,” he said. “We are testing twice a week to avoid the dreaded ‘C Word’ and trying to get on with it really.
“It is going to be a challenge this season more than last season, just because of where we are at and the fact the country is open for business now.
“There is more of it passing around and you can get it anywhere.
“The main thing is that if you have got it, that it’s a different thing to someone who has to self-isolate. And I must reiterate that some of our ones have had to self-isolate because of close contacts.
“That hopefully gets taken away if you are double vaccinated on August 16, so that will be a bit of a landmark day in football. The ones who haven’t got the virus won’t have to self-isolate, which is important.
“We are going above and beyond what the protocols are trying to keep it away from them.”
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