WANDERERS’ players have not yet been asked to reduce or defer salaries – but club skipper Jason Lowe accepts it will be a topic for discussion as the lockdown continues.

Almost the entire of Bolton’s non-playing staff were placed on furlough at the start of the week, a move which has been replicated around clubs up and down the land in the last few days.

National attention has now fallen on whether players will also fall in line. The PFA is currently in discussion with the Premier League and EFL over what action could be taken to minimise the financial impact that the coronavirus crisis will have on clubs.

Lowe is realistic about Wanderers’ situation and believes the dressing room is appreciative of the wider issues at play.

“It’s a hurdle we will have to negotiate at some point in time,” he told The Bolton News. “At the moment we have been paid as normal for March and until we are asked or told otherwise that we need to start thinking outside the box with the money available to the club then there isn’t a decision to make.

“If and when there is something to address, I am sure we will make the right decisions for the football club, for ourselves and our families and I am sure as a group we will sit down and discuss it sensibly.

“I don’t know the financial position of other people – and so I can’t speak for everyone – but I read what is happening at other clubs and it’s a horrendous situation.

“If what I read is right, there have been reductions at Leeds United and there has some friction at one of my old clubs, Birmingham City.

“But I think as players we have to appreciate there is a much, much bigger picture at play here and be smart.”

Lowe has also sent a message of solidarity to the staff who have been put on temporary leave, which include personnel from the medical, groundstaff, administration, catering, communications and financial departments at the club and hotel.

“It is always the people in the background – the people who do the kits, write the programmes, clean the dressing rooms, cut the grass, make the tea – they’re the ones who keep the place going and at the moment I just hope the situation they are in is as brief as it can possibly be,” he said.

“It is hard talking about football from the bubble we all exist in but it’s the game we love and of course we want to get back to it.

“At the moment, though, all we can do is look after ourselves, the people who are close to us and give credit to the people who are on the front line of things like the NHS.”