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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
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John McDougall

Bolton team news on Bodvarsson, John & Lee ahead of Fleetwood as Bakayoko absence explained

Bolton Wanderers are hopeful of having striker Jon Dadi Bodvarsson available this weekend but will be missing Kieran Lee and Amadou Bakayoko due to illness and an international call-up respectively.

Wanderers make the trip to the Fylde Coast this weekend seeking three points against Fleetwood Town. The Whites sit seventh in the table and just outside the play-offs on goal difference in a tight battle in the top half of the standings.

Ahead of the game, a bout of illness has struck the camp, Ian Evatt has confirmed and the Whites are sweating over the fitness of a couple of players. Striker Bodvarsson however, has returned to training and could be fit to take on the Cod Army, while Declan John is also back available, but Lee misses out.

READ MORE: Bolton defender on Australia World Cup chances & why Wanderers move could help with recognition

Evatt said: “We’ve had a bit of illness in camp this week to be honest, so one or two are still suffering with that. Amadou is away with Sierra Leone. Other than that, all good.”

“Jon is back in today. He said he felt okay today, but it’ll be interesting to see how he feels tomorrow because it was quite a nasty bug that he had.

“Declan got over his a lot quicker. He trained really well today and I was pleased with him. Kieran Lee is off ill as well at the moment. We’ve got some illness around and we’ll just see how we manage that up to the weekend.”

One player who will also be missing is Bakayoko, who has been called up by Sierra Leone for a friendly match against Algeria and will be played in Dubai. Evatt outlined the striker was given the option by his club to go and there are no ill feelings about Bakayoko going to play for his country.

Evatt said: “I was never fortunate enough to play international football and I’m never going to be the type of manager that says ‘you’re not going, you’re not playing’. It was our choice, but it’s not our choice because I never want a player to do anything that he doesn't want to do.

“It’s not the right way and it’s not the right thing to do. We gave Baka the option and he wanted to go, so I have no problems with that at all. There will be no negative thoughts towards him.

“It’s great credit that he’s an international football player and he wants to go and do that. We’ll manage without him this weekend.”

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