Hat-trick of central midfield blows for Wigan Athletic manager

The Latics boss will be without THREE of his senior choices in that area, meaning he will spend the rest of the week pondering 'how aggressive we're going to be' in terms of his approach.

Matt Smith will miss the game through suspension following his sending-off for two bookable offences at Peterborough last weekend.

Liam Shaw is still not fit after damaging a calf muscle in training last Friday.

And Steven Sessegnon will be out of Maloney's plans until the end of March after pulling up lame in the opening five minutes against Posh."Unfortunately, that's not going to be a short one," said

Maloney. "We're looking at five to six weeks for Sess, which is obviously a huge blow for us.

"He's been brilliant in a variety of roles...right-back, left-back, central midfield. I'm a big fan of his, so the timescale is not great for us.

"Liam won't make the game either, I don't think, and that means we'll have to make a big decision on how aggressive we're going to be in those central midfield positions.

"Thelo (Aasgaard) has been brilliant for us in there before, and we've also got Scotty (Smith), Baba (Adeeko) and Chris (Sze) who can play there.

"We've got a few options and we'll take our time about which way we want to go."

Latics are aiming to complete a hat-trick of wins over the Grecians, having twice won 2-0 in the space of a fortnight last October and November in the league and then the FA Cup.

"When you look back to those two games down there, things are very different for both sides," added Maloney.

"They're in good form and, even when we played them, you know if you give them time and space they will play through you.

"But if they want to hurt you with the long ball, they can do that as well.

"Whatever happens, though, we know our mentality can't drop...if it does, we can get hurt, and the players know that."