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Wanderers are checking on a potential knee injury for Kyle Dempsey which could jeopardise his involvement in this weekend’s home game against Peterborough United.
The midfielder was substituted at half time in Tuesday night’s 2-0 defeat at Birmingham City and had also been given treatment by physios on the pitch.
Ian Evatt confirmed that he had always planned to switch Dempsey for John McAtee at some stage – hoping to switch from a more defensive style employed in the first half – but confirmed that the injury had forced him into action.
“He had a bit of a knee issue, we are not sure on the extent of it at the moment,” he said. “It was on and off during the first half, but he wanted to soldier on.
“At half time there was no point, the tactical plan was to make those changes regardless, so the three – John McAtee, Victor Adeboyejo and Aaron Collins – were always going to come on at some point to try and get us something from the game, and it almost happened.”
Evatt played Dion Charles as a lone striker in the first half in the hope Wanderers could remain in the game against the League One leaders, then bring McAtee, Aaron Collins and Victor Adeboyejo into the match later.
Tomoki Iwata’s third-minute goal put a big dent in the plan but Bolton managed to hang in there at 1-0 with McAtee nearly bringing them level 10 minutes before the end.
“It was exactly the game I thought it would be,” Evatt said. “If we had started like that then the spaces would have been too big, the midfield players wouldn’t have been able to cover those spaces, and I think they would have had a lot more joy.
“We have tried to frustrate them for as long as we could to be in the game, we were in the game, and we missed a huge moment which gets us a result, I believe.”
Wanderers host Peterborough on Saturday having dropped to 14th in the table. Posh – a point and two places above them, having played two more games, have also struggled for consistency this season.
Evatt hopes his players can patch themselves after a tough night at St Andrew’s.
“We have to reset and go again,” he said. “Everybody knew this game was going to be extremely difficult, the frustrating thing is that we could have got something, it came down to that big chance. That is the annoying thing.
“We are where we are and we have to get the lads who are available to play again on Saturday.”
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