Lowe determined to get to bottom of Wigan Athletic injury misfortune

Previous boss Shaun Maloney was hampered by the loss of several of his frontline stars for long periods of the campaign, and Lowe already has first-hand experience.

Before Lowe had even taken charge of a game, midfielder Baba Adeeko was taken out of his plans after picking up an injury in training.

On-loan Liverpool defender Luke Chambers was a surprise absentee from the weekend draw against Barnsley after pulling up lame on the eve of the game.

And now midfielder Tyrese Francois - who was on the verge of a return from more than four months out with an ankle problem - has pulled a muscle in training that will sideline him for 'a few weeks'.

Lowe said: "We'll try and get to the bottom of it, because there's been a few of them (injuries) this season. Obviously the main focus now is on picking up as many points as we can between now and the end of the season.

"But we will be looking at what the lads are doing, the training, the loading, because we've had too many injuries. And that's not down to the physios, or the fitness coaches, or the coaches. But we need to look at the lads, see what they've been doing, and how we can manage that better."

On Chambers, Lowe said: "Luke's all right, he had an infection in his foot, believe it or not, on the inside of his left foot.

"Don't ask me how he got it, but it got infected, and we shut him down. He trained on Friday, but as he was warming up, he was limping and said his Achilles was tight.

"He was on some antibiotics, so I don't know whether his ankle had gone a little bit swollen because of that. So it's nothing major, he felt a lot better today, but we just pulled him out because there's no point risking him on Saturday.

"We'd have had Liverpool on the phone if we had, which we don't want, and we did the right thing. He wasn't ready to play...and I've always said that if a player isn't 100 per cent to play, they won't be playing, because it's not fair for anyone."

Chambers is only just back from more than five months out with a long-term back issue.

On Francois, Lowe added: "We've had some bad news on Tyrese, he's going to be out for another few weeks.

"We're just waiting on some more results from his scan, but it's a muscle injury, and there's not much we can do about that, it is what it is."

Lowe has already all-but conceded midfielder Matt Smith will miss the rest of the season after suffering severe damage to his hamstring at Rotherham on Boxing Day.

"To be brutally honest, the long-term injuries are no good to me at the moment," Lowe said last week. "I have spoken to Matt, and he said it was coming along, getting better. But Matt's certainly not someone who's going to be back with us very soon."

Utility man Steven Sessegnon is also out, having last played against Birmingham City on January 4.