Wigan Athletic boss reveals Viv Solomon-Otabor sacrifice

The winger was a surprise inclusion in the starting XI, seven days after appearing to have a huge question mark put against his participation for the rest of the season due to a knee injury.

“Viv potentially could be out for some time," Richardson had said last Saturday. "We're hoping we might possibly be able to manage him in certain games...”

After being assessed by a specialist, Solomon-Otabor and Latics decided they will pick and choose the games they feel the risk is acceptable, while taking as much opportunity to recuperate at other times.

And Richardson was full of admiration for Solomon-Otabor - and also Curtis Tilt, who made his international debut for Jamaica 48 hours before the game - for putting the team first at such a critical stage of the campaign.

"Viv's got an issue with his knee, where he's got a couple of floating bones in there," admitted Richardson.

"Fair credit to the kid, he wants to play through the pain, and he's having to be injected to allow him to do that.

"He's obviously only firing at a certain percentage, but he wants to be involved in the fight and you can only respect him for that.

"While we're on the subject, there's also Curtis Tilt, who stepped off a plane yesterday evening, and turns up today wanting to play.

"We also had another who didn't want to go away in the international break because of the quarantine situation, he wanted to stay here and help the club.

"These lads are giving me absolutely everything, and that's very pleasing."

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