Ian Evatt hopes to have Carlos Mendes Gomes fit and firing again after the next international break.
Mendes Gomes won’t be able to resume Wanderers’ League One campaign at Reading on Saturday as he recovers from the hamstring injury he sustained in the Whites’ EFL Trophy win over Salford City last time out.
The summer signing set up the victory over Salford with a spectacular first goal for the Whites before picking up the injury that will keep him sidelined into next month.
“We’ve got one or two injuries, which isn’t great. Carlos was the major one from the Salford game,” confirmed Evatt as the Wanderers’ boss prepares his side for the trip to the Royals.
“That hamstring injury is more significant than we first thought. He looks like he’ll be out for six weeks. There’s a week of that down the line already, so fingers crossed we can get through to the next international break and then he’ll be fine post that.
“Carlos is a player who’s hugely talented and can fill multiple positions. We’re just a bit light in terms of the squad but we have a lot of players that can do similar roles.”
The next international fixtures fall in the middle of October, when Wanderers’ scheduled trip to Barnsley could be called off.
That will be dependent on international call-ups with Wanderers having four players selected for their countries for the recent games which produced a blank day last weekend for the Whites.
Of those, Josh Sheehan won a fourth full cap for Wales, while top scorer Dion Charles and Eoin Toal were in the Northern Ireland squad that travelled to Slovenia and Kazakhstan for Euro 2024 qualifiers, with Charles getting minutes in each.
“The majority of the group have had chance to re-set but we have had some players away on international duty,” added Evatt, whose side resumes its campaign sitting second and a point off top spot in League One.
“Some of them have done a significant amount of travelling, which means the preparation for this game has been slightly disrupted.
“But we’re not complaining. It’s great that we’ve got international footballers again and fantastic that our players are going away to represent this football club and play at the highest level.”