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Wanderers will bring Kieran Lee and Ricardo Santos back into the starting line-up against Barnsley in the Carabao Cup.
Ian Evatt says he will not be making “wholesale changes” to the team which drew with MK Dons at the weekend but confirmed that defender Santos and midfielder Lee are in for their first starts of the season.
Summer signing Will Aimson will miss the game with a groin injury and Declan John will also sit out on Tuesday night after picking up a minor knock in the closing stages against MK, which is likely to mean a start for Liam Gordon or Harry Brockbank.
“We need to give some players a game for a few reasons,” the Bolton boss explained. “Some will need rest so they can handle Saturday-Tuesday next week, some like Rico and Kieran need minutes and they will be back in tomorrow.
“We’re all good apart from that. Declan got a bit of a knock in the last few minutes on Saturday but it has settled really quickly and he will be fine for Saturday. We’re ready to go.”
Wanderers have not made it past the first round of the League Cup for the last two seasons but Evatt is hopeful that the team he names at the UniBol will have enough to knock out the Championship Tykes, who missed out on Premier League promotion in the play-offs last season.
“We all know the league campaign is the most important thing and us challenging as high as we possibly can but cup runs are fantastic,” he said. “As fans, I think we all want them.
“We want to go as far as we can. I am not making changes because I don’t value the competition, it is more to give lads minutes who are coming in. And they are first team regulars anyway.
“This squad is so much more competitive than it was last season, so if we do make three or four changes it won’t be weakening the team.”
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