WANDERERS have taken Zach Clough and Max Clayton out of the limelight to get to the bottom of their persistent injury problems.

Phil Parkinson is determined to get both strikers playing consistently in League One and has instructed his head physio Matt Barrass to work closely with the pair in the next few weeks.

Clough suffered another minor hamstring problem in his comeback game against Fleetwood last weekend and could be sidelined for a few weeks as a proper medical investigation into any potential underlying problems is launched.

Likewise, Clayton will have an exploratory operation on his knee on Friday to see if there are any problems which have caused continual swelling in the joint, leading him to miss every competitive game this season.

“We’ve been frustrated with Zach because we were going to put him in against Wimbledon but then thought ‘we’ll give him a bit longer’ and then on Wednesday and we thought ‘no, we’ll save him for Saturday,’” Parkinson explained to The Bolton News.

“We were over-cautious with him and the injury he’s picked up is a different area of the hamstring. It was completely innocuous.

“We need to get to the bottom of the situation. The results of the scan showed it was a very minor injury but it’s the second time that injury has occurred so we have to work with him to ensure he’s really strong and durable enough to go in this league.”

Clayton is looking to return to regular football for the first time in nearly two years after a serious knee injury and a badly torn hamstring.

The former Crewe striker was impressive in pre-season but has been unable to train properly ever since, prompting surgeons to take a closer look.

“The big thing from Max’s point of view is that when the surgeon scanned the knee he said it was in good condition – and a lot of footballers’ knees are not,” Parkinson said.

“There may be an underlying problem. Max is frustrated because he knows it’s an important year for him. All we can do is keep our fingers crossed and hope we can get to the bottom of the problems for him and Zach.”