Bolton Wanderers will wait to see how an illness which forced Declan John off of last night's win over Salford City settles down over the next few days ahead of the trip to Port Vale.
The defender did not emerge after half-time of the 5-1 victory over the Ammies in the Carabao Cup first round victory. He was replaced by Jack Iredale as Wanderers progressed to the next round.
Ian Evatt revealed after the encounter that John was not injured but has been struggling with illness. The Whites head to Vale Park this Saturday as they return to League One action.
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Wanderers are hopeful that the illness settles down and passes before the weekend so the defender can be available for selection. But they have been boosted by an improvement in Ricardo Santos' planta fascia foot problem that he played through the pain barrier with over the weekend.
In other positive news, summer signing Eoin Toal is now back on the grass as he gets up to speed with his new club. Dion Charles is progressing well from a thigh strain, while long term absentees Josh Sheehan and Lloyd Isgrove will feature for Bolton's B team next week as they continue their injury comebacks.
Evatt said: “He (John) was vomiting all last night, so he is obviously poorly with the virus. He has been off today and we will know more tomorrow.
“Everyone is fine and healthy and in one piece, apart from Dion who is making great progress. Eoin Toal is out on the grass now making good progress. Izzy and Josh will play their first game next week, they’re making great progress, so at the moment things look okay. Declan’s obviously poorly last night but these types of bugs normally only last for 24 hours so it suggests he’ll be okay for the weekend as well. All systems go.
Anyone that’s had that will know it’s not nice, but it’s not as bad as what it was last week, it’s improving all the time. He’s trained fully today so he’ll be fine for the weekend.”
Evatt confirmed that Iceland international Jon Dadi Bodvarsson did not pick up any injury last night against the Ammies and was merely fatigued as he came off. The forward is still playing catch up with his fitness after a few niggling injuries in pre-season.
“No, he was knackered. He was just tired. I have said before, during pre-season he has had a bit of disruption. He has had small injuries, not enough to keep him out for any length of time, but enough to affect his physical work.
"He is still trying to catch up on everybody else. But as I said, our pressing strategy starts with our forwards and it is hard work, but they get the rewards on the back of it. It will be very rare that you see any centre forward play 90 minutes for me this season just because of what is required and the fact that we have got some great options and can utilise five subs.
“There’s nothing wrong with Jon apart from it’s hot at the minute and the Icelandics don’t seem to like the heat! His physical data was excellent last night, he was fatigued, simple as that."
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