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Josh Sheehan is on standly for the Wales squad, which will be announced later today.
Ian Evatt had feared that he would be without his influential midfielder for the upcoming home game against Burton Albion - but Sheehan should now be clear to play provided there are no injuries in the Welsh camp in the meantime.
The Burton game has been rescheduled for Monday, September 6, for live coverage on Sky Sports.
Sheehan has twice been capped before for Wales and missed out on selection for the squad at this summer's Euros. He was added to Robert Page's 'long' squad for a friendly against Finland in Helsinki, followed by two World Cup qualifiers against Belarus and Estonia, but has not made the final cut.
Evatt hopes that more of his Welsh players will catch the eye and follow in Sheehan’s footsteps towards international football.
“The Welsh Mafia are running the changing room at the moment," he joked.
“We have a few – so we are pretty hopeful that with Josh in the squad we have also got Gethin Jones, MJ Williams, Lloyd Isgrove and Declan John. A strong contingent.”
Sheehan could feature against Wigan in the Carabao Cup tonight with Evatt predicting a furious pace to the game that will suit his own team’s playing style.
“We pride ourselves on being a very good technical team but what underpins it is hard work and team spirit. Our players have that in abundance,” he said.
“You need it in a derby. You need the correct character and culture, and we have spent time building it.
“Our lads are together and they are looking forward to playing in a local derby, they know what is at stake.
“We have a strong mentality and have been through a lot in a relatively short space of time, what with the start we made last season, then having to go to Crawley to win, big games, we have come back from behind many times. We have character and you need that in this type of game.”
Evatt is also confident he will be able to make changes to the side which beat Oxford on Saturday without compromising the quality of performance.
“It is something we have worked hard to get, and to build. We have strength in depth,” he said.
“We have had a tough fixture list, condensed, and it has been physically demanding, especially given what we went through in pre-season. But I trust every single one of my squad, they wouldn’t be in it if I didn’t.
“With Kieran Lee and Alex Baptiste not playing on Saturday, two vastly experienced players, when you have them to come off the bench to get three points over the line and then potentially play in a midweek cup match then you know you are not losing much, if anything at all.”
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