SIMEON Slavchev’s Wanderers career may be over after he was ruled out for the rest of the season with an ankle ligament injury.

The midfielder, who has played just 45 minutes of football for the Whites since signing on loan from Sporting Lisbon in January, was crocked whilst playing for Bulgaria in a 2-2 draw with Italy last weekend.

Neil Lennon was disappointed for Slavchev, who took a while to get up to full fitness on his arrival from Portugal but who had been pencilled in to play a bigger part in the season run-in.

“It’s ligament damage to the ankle, fall-out from a tackle, so he’s going to be a while and it might be the end of the season,” he told The Bolton News.

“He’d never had a chance and it’s a shame because he would have done.”

Slavchev appeared briefly as a second-half substitute in the 4-1 defeat at Derby County in February but had been making decent progress behind the scenes.

Lennon had planned to get a better look at the 21-year-old after the Easter weekend, when it is hoped Wanderers will be clear enough from the bottom three to declare themselves safe from relegation.

“He’s really unlucky with the timing of the injury,” Lennon added. “It was only the circumstances we were in that meant he hadn’t figured for us.

“He wasn’t quite ready when he first came in and then I also felt we had to get over the line first before we started giving others an opportunity.”

Lennon had no further problems among his international jet-set, with the likes of Tim Ream, Barry Bannan, Adam Bogdan and Neil Danns reporting back for duty yesterday morning.

“I could do with having a nice couple of injury-free weeks,” Lennon admitted. “It would make a nice refreshing change.

“We are starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel with the longer-term injuries, so for all my growling in recent weeks on the subject, it is starting to ease up a little bit.

“I just hope that’s still the case when I get into the training ground.”