Wigan Athletic boss faces first anxious injury wait of tenure as Baba Adeeko pulls up lame

The Republic of Ireland midfielder was a surprise omission from the squad that travelled down to Charlton for the 2-1 defeat at the Valley.

And Lowe has confirmed Adeeko's unavailability came as a shock as he was preparing for his first game in charge.

"It was news to me on Thursday," said Lowe, who was confirmed as Latics boss on Wednesday evening, and met the media the following morning.

"He'd taken a knock in training on Wednesday, an ankle problem, when obviously I wasn't there, and they thought he might have been okay.

"I don't know how long he'll be out for, we'll have to speak to the medical staff about that. But we just felt if he wasn't going to be fit to travel down with us, he may as well stay up there and get some treatment. He'll go for a scan and we'll see what the extent is."

Adeeko will at least have extra time than usual to recover, with Latics' scheduled trip to Burton Albion next weekend put back to the last midweek of the season - Tuesday, April 29 - due to international call-ups.

When asked whether the additional time would be beneficial given his recent appointment, Lowe added: "Definitely, that's going to be very important for us.

"These lads have worked their socks off for us of late, there's still 10 games to go, and they're going to need a bit of rest during this period.

"We'll also get some work into them on a few things we think need to be better...set-plays need to be better - for and against - having that calmness to be able to play in the final third when we need to, that needs to be better, and people wanting the ball needs to be better.

"But look, that's why I'm here, and we've got to change that. We'll have two weeks to work together as a group and hopefully will be better for it when we come back.

"A couple of weeks on the grass can only help us get to know each other, and I'm looking for my home debut against Barnsley (on March 29)."