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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
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John McDougall

Declan John's absence for Bolton Wanderers in draw vs Wigan Athletic explained by Ian Evatt

Declan John missed Bolton Wanderers' draw against Wigan Athletic due to a back injury picked up in training and Ian Evatt admits he is unsure of the severity at the moment.

Wanderers came from behind to collect a share of the spoils this afternoon against the Latics in the lunchtime kick-off at the DW Stadium.

James McClean put the Latics in front early in the first half as his cross found its way all the way through to give the hosts an early lead.

READ MORE: Bolton Wanderers player ratings vs Wigan Athletic - Jon Dadi Bodvarsson and Dapo Afolayan good

Leam Richardson's side dominated much of the first half but a big moment came before half-time when referee Samuel Barrott refrained from showing McClean a second yellow card following a foul on Dapo Afolayan, for whom he had fouled for his opening booking earlier in the game.

Wanderers were the better team after the break and got a deserved equaliser when Bodvarsson rose to nod home Will Aimson's cross and give Wanderers a share of the spoils.

But John was not part of the matchday squad, which saw Kieran Sadlier play as left wing-back and Gethin Jones on the right as he returned from compassionate leave.

Evatt was pleased to see his vice-captain back in action but admitted he was unsure how long he could be without the fomer Swansea City defender for.

He said: "I don’t know. With back injuries, you never know how quickly they settle. It’s in the hands of Declan and the physios to see how quickly we can get it to calm down and enable him to play again.

“It is great to have him (Jones) back available and we’ve been a little bit light all of a sudden at the wing-back area again with Izzy’s injury and Marlon’s injury. Declan hurt his back yesterday in training so we’ve managed to somehow get Gethin back to wing-back and Sads playing wing-back and I thought he did okay today.”

Wanderers came from behind and Ian Evatt sent on Bodvarsson, Kyle Dempsey and Amadou Bakayoko from the bench to help grab a share of the spoils which they duly did.

Evatt was pleased in particular with the impact of the former duo and felt his side showed more confidence and belief as the encounter wore on, which helped them get a point on the road.

The Bolton boss said: "I thought Demps and Jon in particular were outstanding when they came on. They gave us some freshness and impetus. I was really pleased and we’ve more or less completely dominated the second half. It was a point well deserved.

“I think we were really disappointed with the first half and hour and we looked nervy and on edge, but we have to remember that some of these boys, it’s the first real derby they’ve played in in terms of an atmosphere like it was today and the type of team we are, you have to show real confidence in possession even when you’re being pressed and take the ball and have control with possession and we didn’t do it well enough in the first half an hour.

“But once we wrestled that control and we started to build belief with passes and possession, we wrestled back the game in the last 10 minutes of the first half. We looked better and that then gave us some belief and confidence at half-time to go again second half and the impact off the bench that the boys gave us was incredible.”

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