XAVIER Amaechi could miss the start of the League One season after damaging his metatarsal in tonight’s friendly victory against Preston North End.

The on-loan Hamburg winger limped off in the first half of the game and was seen using crutches and wearing a protective boot when he came back down the tunnel for the second half.

Ian Evatt was without several first team players for the friendly but the Bolton boss did not confirm whether the likes of Declan John, Matt Gilks, Lloyd Isgrove and Kieran Lee were missing for Covid-related issues.

Gethin Jones also limped off after a reckless challenge from Lewis Leigh but is not understood to have an injury.

Evatt admitted, however, that he is dealing with several issues ahead of Saturday’s game at Barrow.

“Yeah, we’ve got quite a few to worry about to be honest,” he said. “Obviously Xav, it looks like his metatarsal at the moment so we’ll just have to wait and see how that settles.

“Other than that, I think the ones that are here, everyone has come through okay and then we’ve got some that aren’t okay at home so we just have to play it by ear, really, day to day.”

Evatt is pleased with the way the players who did come through the Preston game have been bearing up.

“We’re still improving,” he said. “We are not where we want to be yet in terms of match fitness but the lads that played 90 minutes today did well.

“MJ came through the game, he’s a powerhouse, and the lads that I took off was more to protect them because we’re a bit short and light on numbers at the moment.

“Having said that, we finished with a very young team, an incredibly young team that did themselves no harm at all. This is a club heading in the right direction.”