Bolton boss Ian Evatt rates former team mate Barry Bannan as among the best players in League One and believes his side will have to keep the former Wanderers midfielder quiet.
Bannan played alongside Evatt at Blackpool during a loan spell from Aston Villa in the 2009/10 season in the Championship.
The midfielder also had a spell at Wanderers on loan from Crystal Palace in the second half of the 2014/15 campaign, making 16 appearances and notching three assists in that time.
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Bannan has been at Hillsborough since the summer of 2015 and has racked up 268 appearances and 14 goals for the Owls in that time, becoming a first team regular at Hillsborough.
And Evatt has a lot of admiration for his old team mate who he ranks as among the best in League One this season, believing Wanderers will have to do their homework in order to restrict his influence on the clash at Hillsborough as much as possible.
Evatt told the Manchester Evening News: “I rate him very highly. He’s one of the best players in this division.
“We have to formulate a plan to limit his involvement in the game because if we don’t then he has the tools to hurt us."
Tomorrow's game sees a return to Hillsborough for former Owls players Kieran Lee and Elias Kachunga.
The former had eight seasons at Hillsborough before departing in the summer of 2020 and linked up with Wanderers this January, helping the club win promotion out of League Two and into the third tier of English football.
Kachunga's stay in that part of Yorkshire was much shorter compared to Lee's with the attacker only being there last season before joining Wanderers on a two-year deal just before the season began.
Evatt has revealed he has not spoken to either player much over the return to their old club tomorrow, believing both are used to playing on big stages and that both will deal with the occasion.
He added: “I haven’t spoken to them much. We have had a laugh and a joke with Kieran because I’ve known Barry Bannan a long time and played with him – and apparently he used to call Kieran a ‘Creature’ when they were at Sheffield Wednesday.
“But these are players that are used to playing in big stadiums and they are both more than experienced enough to go and deal with it."
