A knee medial ligament sprain kept Bolton Wanderers forward Amadou Bakayoko out of the pre-season friendly loss to Wigan Athletic today but Ian Evatt does not expect to be without the Sierra Leone international for long.
Wanderers took on the Latics this afternoon in a behind closed doors clash at Bolton's Lostock training ground. Leam Richardson's side won the contest 1-0.
Charlie Wyke's first half penalty proved to be decisive for the Latics after Elias Kachunga had missed an earlier spot kick for the Whites. Wanderers are next in action this Tuesday in another behind closed doors clash away to another Championship side in the form of Watford at the Hornets' London Colney training base.
READ MORE: 'Lots of positives' - Ian Evatt's immediate reaction to Bolton's pre-season loss to Wigan
Bakayoko watched on from the sidelines against the Latics as he was not involved in the encounter after picking up the injury on Friday in training. But Evatt gave positive news on the attacker and expects him to miss no more than a fortnight of action, which means he should be back for the League One season curtain raiser on the road against Ipswich Town.
Bakayoko's place in the squad was taken by summer B team signing Connor Stanley and Evatt was pleased with how the youngster did despite not playing in his best position. The Bolton boss believes all of his forwards are now capable of playing 90 minutes after having their game time managed so far in pre-season.
Evatt said: “It looked quite a nasty one initially yesterday in training and we were fearing the worst. But we’ve had the news that it’s basically just a grade one medial ligament sprain in his knee.
“It’s not a big thing at all and it’ll probably be a week to two weeks maximum. Fortunately for us, that went our way.
“Young Connor stepped up from the B team and he’s a really bright prospect. But he isn’t a nine, he’s more of a 10 or a wide player, but I thought he did really well and he’s really impressed in pre-season, as have quite a few of the B team members actually.
“We’re in a good place and it changes things slightly for us in terms of managing minutes, but the season’s getting really close now and we have to make sure we’re ready to play 90 minutes and I think our forwards are more or less there now.”
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