Team News: Bolton Wanderers sweat the fitness of two key players

Steven Schumacher's team may have returned to winning ways but are not without obstacles. The Whites continue to be without a number of players and could yet lose more before kick-off tomorrow.

Josh Sheehan, who hobbled off after blocking an indirect free-kick, will be a late call for the game after featuring in every single game for Bolton this season.

Gavin Bazunu, who has missed the last few games with a thigh injury, could return but it will be a late call for the goalkeeper also.

Schumacher is hopeful to have the pair play, but admits as of yet, he is unsure.

“We are still not sure on Josh Sheehan." Said the Bolton boss.

“We think it is nothing too serious. He seems positive this morning. He didn't train with us this morning but we will give him until tomorrow morning. He will come in and do a fitness test tomorrow morning and see how he goes, because he has been really important for us and he will be desperate to play. So we will give him as much time as possible.

“Similar with Gavin, we think his issue that he had with his thigh - once we've had it scanned - from the results, there is no major damage there.

“But there was still an awareness the other day about it, so we will make a late decision on him, whether it is wise to put him back in. But obviously Jack played really well on Tuesday night and we kept a clean sheet, so there is no mad rush with that.

“We will have a chat this afternoon with the medical team about what is the best course of action for Gav. But apart from that, we are where we are. The others who are a bit more long-term are still the same."

Atsuke Ito was another to limp off on Tuesday, the midfielder suffering looked to be a hamstring injury.

Schumacher has confirmed that it was not anything serious, and rather a bit of cramp. The Japanese international will be good to go on Friday.

“Ito is OK. He had a bit of cramp but trained this morning, so he is fine. Everybody else came through clean on Tuesday.”

Elsewhere, Jayden Nelson, John McAtee, Ryan Hardie and Ethan Erhahon remain out.

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Derby County look a team in serious trouble right now, with John Eustace under serious pressure to deliver a result this week. Despite their opposition's form, the game marks Bolton's third in six days, with a much needed international break following.

“The first two games have been alright. We played well against Bristol City and made a couple of errors and let them in,” the head coach reflected.

“We played well on Tuesday night against Charlton, got ourselves in front, and then we were a little bit guilty of not killing the game off.

“I think if we are going to improve as a team and get better, when we smell blood, like we did against Bristol City, we should have been out of sight.

“Then, when we smelled blood against Charlton and had three or four counter attacks in that second half when they were committing numbers forwards, the best teams with the best players in this division, it’s game over. It wasn't game over for us because we are not quite there yet, so that is something we need to improve on.”

Derby County's season got worse as it was confirmed today that Sammie Szmodics was ruled out for six weeks.

David Ozoh, Joe Ward and Ryan Hedges are another three that will miss the game on Friday.

Eustace is under immense pressure and almost has to get a result on tomorrow night. Despite this, the Derby County boss believes he will keep his job even if his Rams side lose to Wanderers.

"For the first 15 or 16 months, we were on track with that and there's been a setback for sure, and now we have got to find out a way to make sure that we get enough points firstly, to get to 50 points, you know, to stay in the league. And then let's reassess from there."

Bolton will arguably never get a bigger opportunity to pick up another three points on the road.