Triple injury worry for Wigan Athletic boss ahead of Barnsley trip

The Latics boss has THREE fresh major injury doubts ahead of the trip to Oakwell from the morale-boosting victory over Carlisle on Friday night.

Stephen Humphrys was forced off shortly after the restart after failing to run off a knock to his hip.

The forward later shared a picture of the bump on social media, with the caption 'hopefully this balloon in my hip goes down a bit soon'.

Defender Sean Clare had to go off after sustaining a bang to the head late on.

And midfielder Scott Smith - who was in the act of being substituted before Clare was fast-tracked off - is nursing a calf problem.

"I think there'll still be changes for Barnsley, there has to be," admitted Maloney.

"Firstly, we've got a few doubts...Stephen came off with what looked to be a knock to his hip area. It's always when you stop that these things become worse, and I knew at half-time that if he didn't look great then he'd have to be changed quickly.

"He's a big talent when his mentality is what it was against Carlisle.

"Scotty Smith was struggling at the end as well - I had to put him almost left wing to protect him - and Sean Clare had a bang to the head.

"I've tried to rotate to retain a freshness - sometimes it's worked and sometimes it hasn't - but I thought the midfield benefitted from that against Carlisle.

"Liam Shaw was excellent in the open spaces, I was really impressed.

"But I also thought Scotty Smith was brilliant, I'm asking him to play under real pressure, receiving the ball, it's a hard position that No.6.

"We've tried to rotate the attacking options, but sometimes we've not had that option, I didn't think there was anything else we could do against Derby.

"But now we have Martial (Godo) back, we have Charlie (Wyke) back, we have Jordan (Jones) back and, all of a sudden, we're looking a bit stronger."

Latics are aiming to make amends for the 2-0 home defeat they suffered in the corresponding fixture back in August.

"I'm expecting a really tough game, I think they're going to be really aggressive," Maloney added. "I actually expected them to be aggressive in the first game at the DW, and they weren't, they paid us a lot of respect.

"But I think they'll come toe-to-toe this time, try to take the ball off us quickly, and it will be a very tough game.

"I really like what they can do, Barnsley...they can play if you give them time, but they'll also get the ball forward quickly and test you constantly.

"It's a big test for us, but let's see what we have."