Bolton Wanderers boss Ian Evatt delivers "positive news" on Dion Charles injury | OneFootball

Highlights

Bolton Wanderers manager Ian Evatt has delivered "positive news" on star striker Dion Charles, who came off in the 58th minute of their win over Wycombe Wanderers last night.

The Northern Ireland international wasn't able to get on the scoresheet against Wycombe, but his side managed to secure all three points, even with him missing the final third of the game. Charles is leading the way for Bolton in front of goal, as he did last season too.

The 28-year-old striker has scored 13 goals in 29 games in League One, for Wanderers; that's not far off the 16 that he managed in the entirety of the prior campaign.

It's getting to a very important stretch of the season. Bolton have just 16 league matches left and they will be eyeing one of those top two spots. They currently sit one point off second-place Derby County and seven points behind top of the table Portsmouth, but Bolton have two and three games in hand on them, respectively.

Charles will be a big part of their promotion push, and the injury that he picked up in last night's match will have some fans, and some of the club's backroom staff, a bit worried.

Ian Evatt hopes that Dion Charles' knee injury isn't a serious one

After the game, the Bolton manager revealed that the Northern Irish forward had picked up an injury to his knee. He said after the game that he felt confident that Wanderers' talisman hadn't sustained any major damage, as per the Bolton News, but that they were still awaiting a full diagnosis from the medical staff.

"Dion felt his MCL (medial cruciate ligament) in the second half with that block tackle, but it looks like it has settled pretty quickly, so that is good news, positive news," said the 42-year-old. "We won’t know the extent until the morning but we are quite comfortable that he will be OK."

His side will also be without midfielder George Thomason for the next two matches after the club lost its appeal to overturn the red card he received in their game against Northampton Town.

Dion Charles would be a big miss for Bolton if injury proves to be worse than expected

In the 2022/23 campaign, Bolton's striking pairing of Charles and Victor Adeboyejo were very closely matched. The Northern Irish striker netted 16 times in the league, and Adeboyejo netted 14 times. This season there is a bit more of a gap. Charles has scored 13 goals to the Nigerian's eight. This is even with the 28-year-old going through a run of two goals in his last 12 league appearances.

Their attacking firepower hasn't seemed to be as spread out as it was in previous years.

The January addition of Aaron Collins should help that cause, but his best work is done when he's going from wide areas to central, or vice versa, which is not what Evatt wants his two strikers to do. That said, he did start alongside Charles in the Wycombe game.

If Charles ends up being out for longer than expected, then the players around him are going to have to step up and make up for him not being there.