Eoin Toal will be missing for Bolton Wanderers for tomorrow evening's Papa Johns Trophy clash against Leeds United's under-21s but Lloyd Isgrove and Josh Sheehan will both play.
Former Derry City defender Toal has made two appearances for Wanderers since his summer transfer. Both have been in this competition against Crewe Alex and Tranmere Rovers.
Toal picked up a thigh strain in last week's B team game against Lincoln City. The defender missed the weekend draw versus Barnsley with it and has not recovered sufficiently enough to be involved against Leeds.
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Evatt hopes that Toal will not be too far away from being regularly involved in Bolton matchday squads after developing behind the scenes to be considered for selection more often now. Both Isgrove and Sheehan will play in the encounter against the Yorkshire side, Evatt has confirmed, and is looking forward to seeing another step forward from the duo.
Asked if Toal will be too far away from a return, Evatt said: “Hopefully not because I’ve been delighted with him. He’s really close to making the squad. Physically he’s developed superbly well, his attitude has been first class.
“He’s picked up what I need from him tactically really well and the positions he was taking up at the B team game the other day as the outside centre back when predominantly we’ve played him as a middle one so far, which is probably the easiest place to play tactically for me, although you do get left one-v-one in large spaces as Rico will tell you.
“The outside ones have a bit more to do and just tactically, he’d been listening and you could see he was trying to take up the positions that I require him to get to, which was really pleasing. Unfortunately for him he picked up a bit of a thigh strain, not too serious and hopefully we’ll have him back soon.”
He added: “I’m looking on the bench today (vs Barnsley) and I’ve got Kieran (Lee) sat there and Josh (Sheehan) sat there and not used them. I’m thinking ‘I wish I had two more subs, I wish we could make all seven!’
“They’ll be ready to play on Tuesday and hopefully we’ll see another step forward from Josh and Izzy.”
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