‘Transfer window help needed,’ admits Wigan Athletic boss

But it’s shaping up to be a very busy week indeed for Cook and his recruitment team.

Latics have offers on the table for two defenders with one of them, Fox, expected to arrive in the next 24-48 hours.

The 32-year-old was left out of Forest’s 3-1 victory over Latics at the weekend, with Forest boss Martin O’Neill confirming the deal - believed to be in the region of £300,000 - was almost done.

“I had spoken to Danny and Wigan have made an offer for him,” said O’Neill.

“It was an awkward one for him, because of all the opposition we had, it had to be Wigan.

“I thought I would take it out of his hands and just not play him in the game. I expect that transfer to go through.”

Reading’s Tyler Blackett has also been strongly linked all window, but Latics face competition for his signature.

“I’ll just try and keep my cards as close to my chest as possible,” was all Cook would say at the City Ground on Saturday when pushed on the matter.

“If the transfer window can offer help for us all, it’s something we must look at.”

Cook’s limited options were underlined at the weekend with midfielder Kal Naismith again starting at left-back, and right-sided raider Nathan Byrne finishing the game in the role.

“We’re just trying...we’re trying...we’re just trying,” explained Cook on the switch.

“I’m not so sure it’s the formations that’s costing us in games, at times it’s just personnel.

“But I’ll never criticise my own players in public, that’s for sure.”

The Latics boss is also bracing himself for what would be a fifth Sunderland attempt to take Will Grigg to the north east.

Despite turning down four bids, Cook admitted the striker - along with everyone else at the DW Stadium - ‘has his price’.

And having sold Josh Maja to Bordeaux for £3.5million, the Black Cats have the means to test Wigan’s resolve further.

It would be no surprise to see Shaun MacDonald - out of contract at the end of the season - move on, having not appeared in the league since breaking his leg at Reading in April 2017.

And Leonardo Da Silva Lopes - who arrived from Peterborough last summer - is also set for a loan move to secure some much-needed first-team football.