WANDERERS head for the Midlands on Saturday with a hole in the middle of the park.

Jay Spearing’s suspension gives Phil Parkinson a quandary at Walsall he could have perhaps done without at this stage of the season.

Already shorn of Mark Davies and Darren Pratley through injury, midfield options have been slimmed further after the Whites skipper picked up his fifth caution of the campaign for complaining at the award of MK Dons’ second-half penalty to referee Peter Bankes. Though Spearing may have had a point – his haul of five yellows in seven starts is high, even for someone with his combative approach.

The former Liverpool ball-winner was sent off on the opening day of last season against Derby County in the Championship but picked up only four more cautions before he was put into limbo in March by a contractual problem. Previously, he had collected eight bookings in each of the two previous campaigns.

Parkinson has extolled the virtues of his stand-in skipper since his arrival as manager in the summer and is unlikely to ask him to temper his fearsome approach to the game.

“He sums up the character I want in the team,” said the Whites boss last week. “He has the passion and the determination I want from the players and he has set a good example.”

But for one weekend, at least, Parkinson must find a replacement.

Walsall are not dissimilar to last weekend’s opponents in that they have plenty of technical players who are comfortable on the ball but a lack of experience has resulted in a poor start.

Parkinson needs to find a player to break up play, like Spearing, and could use Josh Vela n front of the back four as insurance.

Two other options were on show in the Under-23s’ 6-1 victory over QPR on Monday night, although both have styles which differ wildly to the man they will be potentially asked to replace.

Derik Osede has been unable to impress the new manager because of an injury-flecked start to the season. The former Real Madrid man is seen by the coaching staff as a holding midfielder despite playing most of his football in Bolton as a defender.

He impressed in the position in a few outings last season in the Championship but after featuring so sparsely in the last couple of months it could be a gamble to put him straight in against the Saddlers.

Tom Thorpe also started for the U23s following a brief debut off the bench against MK Dons at the weekend. A tall, languid type, the former Manchester United youth product is also a specialist defender who was converted to a defensive midfielder in his latter days at Rotherham United and in a loan spell under Parkinson at Bradford City.

That may hand him the advantage if the manager chooses to make a like-for-like swap and continue with the midfield diamond which has served him well through the seven-game unbeaten run in League One.

Problems which arose last weekend against MK Dons could, however, tempt him into a change of system.

The lack of width was evident at the Macron and also served to leave full-backs Andrew Taylor and Lewis Buxton slightly exposed in spells either side of half time. Chris Taylor and Lawrie Wilson would be two options to balance out the midfield and, potentially, offer some more defensive cover.

Parkinson voiced some concerns over his side’s use of the ball on Saturday but seemed happy to consign a scrappy draw to the history books.

“We are not getting too worked up, there were spells in the game where we were not at our best but we came away with a point, so we’ll move on,” he said. “There’s a week to go over a few things before the Walsall game.”