Former Nottingham Forest defender Danny Fox looks unlikely to start against his former side when they travel to Wigan Athletic on Sunday.
Fox - who made 127 appearances across five years with the Reds - joined the Latics for a reported £300,000 in the January window, as Paul Cook looked to bolster his defensive ranks.
But while the Scotland international started Wigan's first five Championship games of this season and wore the captain's armband for the first two, he has not been used in the League since a 3-1 defeat away to Mark Warburton's Queens Park Rangers on August 24.
Chey Dunkley and Charlie Mulgrew have become Cook's first-choice centre-half pairing, with three clean sheets in their last six outings, as Fox has been consigned to the bench.
Wigan managed no shutouts in their first five outings of 2019-20.
Dunkley has praised the experience of both Fox and Mulgrew alongside him at the heart of the Latics defence - but it is the latter who looks set to start with him when Forest visit the DW Stadium this weekend.
"Playing with Charlie, he's very experienced, like Foxy," Dunkley told Wigan Today.
“Left-footed, got a great wand on him and he’s a top lad off the field as well.
“To play with someone with his experience is always going to help me."
But with ex-Forest man Fox and Cedric Kipre also providing centre-half options to manager Cook, Dunkley believes they have a good variety in that area heading into Sunday's game.
"I think all of them are different but they’re all good, solid centre halves.
"We bring different things to the table, and they’ve been playing with each other as well.
"I’ve formed a good partnership with Charlie and long may that continue in terms of performances. But there’s a lot of hard work to be done.”
