Shrewsbury Town won’t be swayed by Josh Vela in Bolton reunion
Steve Cotterill insists he will not be swayed by Josh Vela’s desire to play at former club Bolton when assessing the midfielder’s fitness.
The 27-year-old called time on 17 years at Wanderers in 2019, when he joined Hibernian in Scotland, six months before returning to England with Shrewsbury.
The all-action midfielder, who is from Salford, has since emerged as one of Town’s star men, but is a big doubt for tomorrow’s trip to the University of Bolton Stadium with a knee injury sustained last weekend.
Vela was looking forward to playing at his former side, for whom he played almost 200 games in all competitions, but boss Cotterill admits the best last season’s player of the year can hope for is a role on the bench.
“Josh Vela I probably think at best is on the bench,” Cotterill said.
“And that would be him wanting to be involved certainly because it’s Bolton, one of his old clubs.
“But we can’t let that camouflage a decision based on the injury and he’s 100 per cent on board with that.
“I just don’t quite know. I think it’s going to come a bit early for him.”
Vela limped out of last weekend’s home win over AFC Wimbledon and was unavailable for Tuesday night’s visit of Wycombe, which the hosts lost 2-1.
Town wing-back Josh Daniels has been ruled out for a second game with the knock he is currently nursing.
Hosts Bolton, promoted from League Two last season, have made a strong start to the League One campaign and sit seventh with four wins from 10.
Cotterill feels the Trotters are in a good place to make a surge back up the pyramid. He said: “They could well do, yeah (compete). They’re a big club, a good size squad and if they’re up there they will add to it again.
“If you can get the club right – and I mean the ownership – you’ve got everything to bounce back quickly. I think they’ve got everything there to get back to the Premier League. I know that’s a bit premature, but they’ve got the fanbase, stadium, the infrastructure to go up another division very quickly.
“They have some very good players and they’re dangerous.
“But, in the next breath, we played a team fresh out the Championship the other night, and I don’t think we looked any different to them.”
