Wigan Athletic man goes under the knife to correct niggling problem

The 23-year-old has remained a peripheral character since joining from League One outfit Lincoln City on deadline day last summer.

His three substitute appearances under Leam Richardson amounted to only 17 minutes in total, while his solitary run-out under Kolo Toure was limited to a 15-minute cameo off the bench at Middlesbrough on Boxing Day.

Scully hasn't been sighted since Shaun Maloney took charge in January, but the new manager has revealed the reason for that absence.

"Anthony's just had a hernia operation," said the Latics boss. "He was really struggling for a number of weeks, going back to prior to me coming in.

"You could tell that he wasn't quite able to give 100 per cent in training.

"And those injuries usually get to a point where surgery is the only alternative.

"He's had the surgery, but you need to be reasonably patient with these things.

"We need to give Anthony a fair bit of time, but hopefully after the next international break he'll be on the way back to training and get back to fighting to get into the 18 and then the XI."

Latics have four matches in the space of 11 days before the international break, with the final eight fixtures to follow in April and May.

Maloney also provided an injury update on Charlie Wyke, whose last start was against Blackpool on November 12 - when Rob Kelly took charge in between the tenures of Richardson and Toure.

"We'll find out more in the next week or so about Charlie," added Maloney. "He had a knock to his knee in the reserve game, and he's been back on the grass, but not with the first-team group.

"Hopefully by the end of this week he'll be back in with the rest of the group."

Fit-again Josh Magennis returned to the squad at the weekend for the first time in several weeks.

On-loan Arsenal defender Omar Rekik also made his first start since making his debut in the first game of the Maloney era at Blackburn on February 6.