Ian Evatt confirmed his defender had suffered a grade 2B tear of his hamstring in the FA Cup third round against Luton Town, which leaves him down to three fit senior central defenders.
Jack Iredale is likely to come in against Leyton Orient – if the match is given the go-ahead – with Eoin Toal shifted to the right side of Ricardo Santos.
But beyond that, Evatt has little cover, and with Gethin Jones away on international duty with Australia at the Asian Cup in Qatar that is unlikely to change in the next few weeks.
When asked if Forrester’s injury will affect his intentions for the rest of the January window, Ian Evatt replied, “Probably.” We haven’t made a final choice yet, but I’ll talk to Chris (Markham) and then come up with a plan.
“Obviously, being in the middle of this window helps, but it’s also the one when Gethin will be gone. Our biggest fear was losing either Cogs or Will during this moment because we don’t really have the cover. It would be quite unsafe to proceed without that.
“We’ll look at what’s available, go over our target list for each position, and then make a decision.”
“It may change things and it is something we need to have deep discussions on.”
Wanderers are waiting to check the findings of a noon pitch inspection at Brisbane Road to determine whether Saturday’s League One game is given the go-ahead, but also face more inspections tomorrow morning if the temperatures remain low.
As things stand, Bolton will play every Saturday and Tuesday until February 17, but Evatt refuses to see the backlog of fixtures as a concern.
“It is absolutely not a bad thing,” he went on to say. “We will embrace it, we will enjoy it.
“I believe this team is still progressing and has more to give. We need to reproduce the performance we had against a Premier League team in Luton Town as many times as possible between now and the conclusion of the season. If we can do that, I have no doubt that we will achieve our goals.
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