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Caleb Taylor’s season at Wanderers may be over after scans confirmed he suffered a significant ankle ligament injury and bone bruising in midweek at Cambridge United.
The on-loan West Brom defender is likely to miss the next six to eight weeks, which means he could run out of time to get match fit again before the final day of the season on April 27.
Taylor has made four appearances so far for the Whites but was forced out of the game on Tuesday night after suffering a heavy challenge and replaced by Jack Iredale.
Ian Evatt has sympathy for the 21-year-old, who was just starting to find his way to match sharpness.
“It is quite a nasty injury,” he said. “It is high grade ankle ligament damage and some bone bruising as well. It will be a significant period out, which is unfortunate.
“As soon as we get one back, we seem to lose another.
“It is one of the harsh lessons and realities of football, and I said to the players this week that this game will love you, hate you, give you things and take things away. It is a constant mental challenge, a test on your character.
“This is a challenge that Caleb is going to face now and with adversity comes opportunity so he has to see it that way now and make sure he commits to his rehab and continues learning.
“I feel really sorry for him because I know what a good player he is, what a good player he is going to be. I don’t think the fans saw that yet with what he’d done so far because he was getting himself up to speed, which he needed to do.”
Iredale played at Cambridge with strapping on a stitched-up ear, which had been torn during the previous game against Charlton.
“He is a tough lad, Jack, a really tough lad,” Evatt said. “He toughed it out on Tuesday and got a clip round the ear, which was rightly punished with a red card.
“He is so robust and tough, and I am delighted he managed to get through it for us.”
Wanderers welcome George Thomason back from suspension and have Ricardo Santos available once more after a calf injury.
Evatt gave an update on his injured players at his afternoon press conference: “Rico is back and has trained really well today, we’ll make a decision on what that looks like for the weekend.
“Dion Charles is improving, he is still not ready but he is improving. Randell (Williams) is almost there.
“With Nathan Baxter, we won’t know until Tuesday when the pot comes off and we can get an image of it to see what the healing looks like.
“At the moment he obviously feels okay because he can’t move it. We will see how that develops next week but, for now, he is not ready.”
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