GEORGE Johnston will not be available for Wanderers at Bristol Rovers as the club wait for the results of a scan on a hamstring injury picked up last week.
The defender missed Bolton’s 2-1 win at Burton Albion after reporting a “cramp-like” issue the day before the game and it is hoped the problem will not keep him out of action for long.
Steven Schumacher is planning without him, however, at the Memorial Stadium, where Wanderers will be looking to protect an unbeaten record stretching back to 1989.
“We haven’t got any new news on injuries from Saturday’s game,” explained the Bolton boss. “Everything is good. We had a few kicks and Wil Forrester got a nice gash on his lip but otherwise there is nothing else which is going to worry us.
“We still won’t have George Johnston because we haven’t had the results of his scan yet. He’s the only injury concern we have got at the moment.”
Wanderers are still without Kyle Dempsey and Victor Adeboyejo (both knee), while Ricardo Santos is not quite ready to be selected as he recovers from a pelvic injury.
Otherwise, fatigue from a tough game at Burton is the only issue that Schumacher will be considering as he picks his side from a buoyant squad which finally broke into the top six with their weekend victory.
“It is what you want,” he said. “As the head coach you want to be able to have a full-strength team that you can pick from and that might give you a better chance of getting the result that you want. We're in good form at the moment, and the players who have been playing have been doing a good job.
“I just keep saying the lads who have been coming on to the pitch off the bench have been excellent as well. We need to continue that, we want to continue this form, keep trying to pick results up where we can and see where it takes us “We have a way of working as a coaching staff and we just try and keep everything the same. When you're in good form like this you can't get carried away and come off it, you have to keep your standards really high. That's us as the staff and the players.
“We have been doing well, we have been getting some good results but we have to remember what it took for us to get those results and just keep doing it.
“So that's the message to the boys, stay at it, keep pushing each other all the time.”
