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Wanderers are unsure whether a knee injury sustained by wing-back Jack Iredale will keep him out of Saturday’s game against Plymouth Argyle.
Ian Evatt revealed that the Australian defender has been coping with a sore knee since the 0-0 draw with Derby County on December 27.
He limped off in the second half of the win against Barnsley on Monday, replaced by Gethin Jones, but the Bolton boss says Iredale will be given time to recover this week before a decision is made on his involvement against the league leaders.
“He has a sore knee but we are unsure at the moment what is happening with it,” he told The Bolton News.
“He took a nasty bang in the last home fixture against Derby and it hasn’t really settled.
“He has managed the best he can and I don’t think there is anything structurally wrong, maybe just a bit of joint surface bruising or something like that, but we will monitor it over the next few days and see how he gets on.”
Jones returned to action for the first time since mid-December, when he picked up a knee injury, with club captain Ricardo Santos also named on the bench following his recovery from the virus which hospitalised him briefly a month ago.
Evatt has been delighted with how his rejigged defence has coped over the last few weeks but said having Jones and Santos back in the group was a big boost ahead of the Barnsley game.
“I said to the staff in the hotel when we were having pre-match, just having them around the group feels better,” he said. “It gives everyone a lift and it was great to see them both back.
“We have got a really strong squad of players and again it is credit to the back three, who I thought defended magnificently.”
Jon Dadi Bodvarsson was also able to make his first start in four weeks at Oakwell, capping the occasion with the second goal of the game.
The Icelander pounced on a mistake from defender Robbie Cundy and keeper Brad Collins to roll in his seventh goal of the season in all competitions.
“We are delighted for Jon, again he is a player who has had some disruption this season, nothing major but little niggles and knocks which have halted his momentum. We just felt it was time to put him back in because he’d trained really well,” Evatt said.
“The way we pressed, front foot, high regain. It was a calm finish and I was really happy for him.”
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