Steven Schumacher confirms concerning Bolton Wanderers news | OneFootball

Bolton have been hit really badly by injuries lately.

Bolton Wanderers' manager Steven Schumacher has confirmed that he is now dealing with nine first-team injuries.

At what is a crucial point in the club's season, to have so many casualties at once really is devastating for Schumacher and his players. Wanderers have four matches to overturn the three-point gap between themselves and Reading, as well as leapfrogging Leyton Orient, in order to get into the final play-off spot.

Nipping at their heels as well are Huddersfield Town, so it's by no means a three-horse race between sixth, seventh and eighth.

Bolton face automatic promotion hopefuls Wycombe Wanderers on Friday, before a trip to Lincoln City on Monday. Both matches will be tough for Schumacher's players to get results from, especially now that they are so thread bare.

Steven Schumacher reveals worrying Bolton Wanderers injury news

The scouse boss is close to being without a full starting XI of players, after some new niggles were picked up against Barnsley and during the preparations for Wycombe.

"No better news, in fact it's got a bit worse," Schumacher admitted to BBC Radio Manchester. "Toaly (Eoin Toal) and Szabi (Szabolcs Schön) are both out on the grass with the physios - they're not going to be available for this weekend's games. They could potentially be available for Peterborough (United), hopefully.

"Alex Murphy and Jordi Osei-Tutu, again, they've both been running out on the grass today. Alex will try and get through it. He obviously finished the games (versus Barnsley) even though he was limping. Jordi had to come off which left us with 10 men, so we'll see how he is tomorrow. I don't know how he'll respond to what he's done today.

"Josh Sheehan has still said that he is sore in his thigh, so he's probably not going to be available for this weekend's games, maybe for Peterborough. Aaron Morley is more serious. He's got ankle ligament damage so he'll be out for the rest of the season. We just don't know what he's going to do yet, whether he needs surgery or whatever.

"It's massive (the list of injuries), isn't it?" Schumacher jokingly said to the BBC reporter.

"Today we've had Carlos Mendes Gomes go down in training. That's another one, as well as Victor Adeboyejo who's the long-term one, so I think that makes it nine."

Times like this present opportunities for young players and those who haven't had much game time. When asked about how he's going to deal with this crisis, the Bolton manager said: "The squad is really thin, and if there's an opportunity to give young players a game then we certainly will, especially if the season doesn't pan out the way we want it to.

"But if we're still in with a shout of achieving what we want to achieve then we have to pick as strong a squad as we can, and everybody who is fit and available will hopefully play a part.

"It's not ideal to have that amount of injuries, especially injuries to some really important players, as well.

"Did I mention Will Forrester? He's done for the season as well. So it's not ideal but it's one of them things that you've got to deal with; you've got to find a way to get through and hopefully get results from what we've got left."

Bolton are going to struggle to get into the play-offs

When you combine the fitness issues that Bolton have with the form of the two teams above them - both have won three, drawn once and and lost once in their last five games - it's hard to see how Schumacher is going to get this team into the top six.

They've made the play-offs in the last two seasons, getting to the final last time out where they lost to Oxford United. Not making it a hat-trick of post-season appearances wouldn't be much of a slight on Schumacher as a manager though; he's done well to come in and right the ship, getting it somewhat back on course before the iceberg of injuries was plonked in their way.

Bolton face Stevenage on the final day of the season, after Wycombe, Lincoln and Peterborough. None of those games will be pushovers, and so, at this stage, the Wanderers are likely to play no more than 46 league games this season.