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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
John McDougall

Danny Cowley's frank Portsmouth verdict on upcoming Bolton Wanderers clash amid question mark

Portsmouth boss Danny Cowley is still waiting to hear if the club's upcoming clash against Bolton Wanderers will go ahead or not but feels it will be impossible to do so in the upcoming international break.

Wanderers are poised to end the month at home on Saturday, March 26, against Portsmouth where Bolton will be seeking to avenge the 1-0 loss at Fratton Park at the end of October.

That game is set to take place during the international break, where the Premier League and Championship take a break while League One and League Two carry on.

READ MORE: Update on Wigan Athletic's clash with Bolton Wanderers as decision made on League One clash

Games in the third and fourth tiers do get postponed, however, due to players being called up by their countries, with at least three call-ups for one side leading to it being eligible for applying for a game to be played at another time.

And thanks to the business conducted in January, that could be the case for Wanderers and there is a big question mark surrounding the fixture.

Dion Charles has already been called up for Northern Ireland ahead of their clashes against Luxembourg and Hungary.

Jon Dadi Bodvarsson could also be called up for Iceland, as could Manchester City loanee James Trafford for England under-20s.

There are call-ups for Pompey too, with goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu and Ronan Curtis to represent the Republic of Ireland for matches against Belgium and Lithuania.

Ollie Webber will be away on Northern Ireland’s under-21, while Joe Morrell is poised to be away with Wales.

It takes three players to be called up for international duty for a team to apply for it to be postponed and that is looking increasingly likely, as Cowley has explained, as he believes they would struggle to get 11 senior players out to face Wanderers.

He told our colleagues at HampshireLive: "We are just waiting. We have had some early feedback and communication with the respective international governing bodies and they have highlighted their provisional squads.

"We are just waiting for them to confirm those.

"If there are enough, we will then go to the league. We would love to carry on playing with the form that we are in, but it will be impossible to do that with the players we anticipate we will lose, we wouldn't get 11 [senior players] out."

READ MORE: 'How he has to be' - Manchester United legend Paul Scholes aim given for Bolton Wanderers ace

READ MORE: MJ Williams gives Bolton Wanderers dressing room view of League One play-offs state of play

For more news about Bolton Wanderers, click here

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