As Wrexham prepare to take on Bolton Wanderers in the EFL Trophy quarter-finals, only one team is looking well-equipped for the task ahead.
Wrexham eased past League Two opposition Port Vale in the third round last week, winning 4-1 away from home thanks to a strong performance from Phil Parkinson’s B-team.
It remains to be seen whether Parkinson sticks with a similar lineup for the Bolton game on Tuesday night, but one thing’s for sure, the Wrexham manager has plenty of options to choose from.
The same cannot be said for new Bolton boss, Steven Schumacher, though, who is facing an injury crisis just one week into his new role.
Bolton Wanderers are down to 15 senior players ahead of Wrexham game
Speaking to Bolton Live ahead of the upcoming EFL Trophy clash, Schumacher gave a damning assessment of the fitness in his squad, with only 15 senior players potentially available for the game after star striker Aaron Collin suffered an injury.
Schumacher said: “He had a bang on his hip after running into Nathan Baxter in training. It is in his oblique, and that can be really painful. He wasn’t moving great on Friday, so he wasn’t obviously available [for Crawley]. And he still isn’t moving brilliantly today, but he said it has settled down a lot.
“We are hoping it will just be a few days and it will settle down and he can get going again. We all know how important he is so we can’t rush him if he’s not feeling right. We will just wait and see how he is.”
Bolton have also lost new signing Kion Etete to injury already, and have only been able to name 21 players out of a possible 22-man squad for the rest of the season.
Schumacher added: “[Etete] said he tried to pass a ball and just felt his left thigh tighten up, so we don’t know the extent of that. But we’ll have to get him scanned because with muscle injuries we can’t really take any risks.”
While Bolton will have a good idea of the threat Wrexham pose, whether they will have the personnel to actually deal with those threats is another matter.
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Phil Parkinson has too many players – a nice problem to have
In stark contrast, the Wrexham squad is brimming with players, and Parkinson had tough decisions to make when registering his own 22-man squad after a January transfer window that saw three new arrivals joining the Red Dragons.
Parkinson has a number of players who can hurt Bolton, but he also has the luxury of being able to leave top players out of the game and save them for league duty at the weekend.
Does he start new signing Sam Smith or stick with players on the periphery like Mo Faal? Will first-team regulars like Elliot Lee and Max Cleworth continue to play, or can Parkinson afford to bring in the likes of George Evans and Dan Scarr? These are all very nice problems to have as a football manager.
This EFL Trophy run may be a distraction in many ways, but it’s also a blessing in disguise, with Parkinson able to rotate his squad, give players a rest, and allow fringe players the chance to gain valuable minutes, too.
When Parkinson was Bolton manager, he lamented the fact he didn’t have the required resources to compete, and it seems very little has changed in the six years since his departure.