WANDERERS have their fingers crossed Zach Clough will make a timely comeback in Saturday’s must-win clash with Rotherham United.

After missing the last five games with a hip injury Neil Lennon believes the young striker stands a fighting chance of returning to action at the Macron this weekend.

The Whites boss is also hopeful Darren Pratley and Gary Madine will be fit, both having pulled out of the squad to face Wolves on Tuesday night with a back injury.

And with all three key players fit, Lennon hopes the late rally at Molineux to grab a deserved point can act as motivation to gain further ground on safety.

“Pratley and Madine could be fit for the weekend and Zach Clough won’t be far away,” he told The Bolton News. “But we should go into the game in a positive frame of mind because I got everything I wanted from the performance against Wolves

“It was important we picked something up from the game in hand. It will give us a big lift and hopefully we can go on and build on that with a win.”

Clough was the subject of huge speculation during the transfer window and held talks with Bristol City over a £2million move earlier in the month.

A handful of Premier League clubs such as Everton, Bournemouth, Watford and Swansea took great interest before his three-week injury lay-off – which may well have worked in Wanderers’ favour in the end.

Lennon was pleased to have lost only fringe players, albeit his options have been thinned out in certain positions.

“Obviously it was a bonus but we did lose some,” he said, “There’s no getting around the fact our squad is very bare.

“We’re at the stage where we’re only just fulfilling the quota of players.”

Kaiyne Woolery was thrown in for his full Wanderers debut at Wolves and Lennon feels the 21-year-old will benefit from the experience.

“He is very raw but then we knew that,” he said.

“He has got the pace. It is a learning experience for him and there were three academy players out there and looked light physically at times because there was no Pratley and Madine but they found a way of playing and it worked for them.”