Bolton Wanderers boss Ian Evatt does not want his players who are on the cusp of receiving another booking which would lead to a suspension to change their game or fear making a tackle.
Wanderers head to Hillsborough tomorrow to take on Sheffield Wednesday in one of only four games taking place in League One this weekend.
Going into the encounter, Bolton have three players who have racked up four bookings for far in the division this season.
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These are right-back Gethin Jones, central defender Ricardo Almeida Santos and holding midfielder MJ Williams.
In all of England’s professional leagues, players will receive a one-match ban if they collect five yellow cards in their team’s opening 19 matches of a league campaign.
Wanderers are currently on 11 matches played in the division and the trio face the prospect of sitting out a match if they pick up another booking in their next eight games.
But Evatt does not want the trio or any of his players to shirk or fear making a tackle, as he believes it could affect their judgement.
And he has suggested there might be grounds for an appeal system to overturn yellow cards if it is felt an official might have got a decision wrong, similar to the way red cards can be appealed.
He told the Manchester Evening News : “We don’t want them to miss any games but people need to tackle. The physical nature of the game has changed over the years and what I would have deemed a good tackle five years ago is now a yellow card offence. It is the nature of the beast.
“I think perhaps the authorities need to look at it. You receive a yellow card for very little now, in my opinion, and we don’t want to see players missing games through suspension.
“Maybe even an appeal system on yellow cards? It matters, so should we be examining if a referee has got a yellow card wrong? At the moment you can only appeal a red.
“I would certainly like to appeal my Rotherham one.
“I don’t want them to fear it because the moment they do, that split-second decision making might affect their judgement on a tackle and we can’t have that.
“We will have to adapt and overcome regardless of how many cards they are on."
