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Wanderers won’t take a “crazy risk” and push Dion Charles too hard on his injury comeback against Shrewsbury Town tonight.
Ian Evatt says his top-scorer will start on the bench once again as the Whites attempt to narrow the gap between themselves and Derby County to a single point.
Charles hit the post in a 10-minute cameo against Portsmouth on Saturday and has trained without any complications to the knee problem which had kept him out of action since mid-February.
Even though Bolton may be forced into changes – with a handful of the weekend’s squad doubtful to play a second game in four days – Evatt does not want the Northern Ireland international to be broken down again.
“There is a temptation, of course there is,” he told The Bolton News. “But we also have to be realistic and I don’t think he is ready to start games now. I think we’d be taking a crazy risk by starting him and the last thing we need now is for him to break.
“It is frustrating for us all because we want him out there but he isn’t right yet. His minutes will be increased, and we felt the 10-15 minutes he gave us on Saturday was the maximum he could handle at the time.
“There will be some improvement tomorrow but he is not ready to start and it is an injury prevention thing more than anything else.”
Aaron Collins has stepped up with five goals in his last three games to keep Wanderers’ automatic promotion flame burning – and Evatt admits the £750,000 fee paid to Bristol Rovers is now looking like money well spent.
He said: “I said to Sharon (Brittan) this morning that it was vital that we got him with the injuries we have suffered since. It was fantastic from the board to back us to make that signing and it has proved a crucial decision.
“But as I said at the time, Aaron was signed for the longer-term, not just the short-term. We knew that he would help us, and he has done immensely with the goals he has scored, but we think there is a huge amount of improvement to come from him, which should be exciting for Bolton fans because we have seen what he can do already.
“We want to get Dion up to speed and we will manage his minutes on Tuesday night with a view to potentially starting him on Saturday, if things go according to plan.”
Evatt knows victory is paramount against Shrewsbury if they are to put any sort of pressure on Derby for the penultimate round of games on Saturday.
“We know that if we want to go up automatically there is no margin for error now,” he added. “We want to give Derby something to think about when they go to Cambridge on Saturday. In football, you just never know.
“We have to look after ourselves and as I said to the players this morning I believe it is still in our hands, not necessarily in terms of automatic promotion, but if we perform like we did against Portsmouth it gives us a great opportunity to get promoted in some way.”
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