Wigan Athletic: Shaun Maloney provides injury update ahead of Saturday's game against Barnsley

The Latics boss will have decisions to make on Jonny Smith, Jordan Jones and Liam Shaw ahead of this Saturday’s game against Barnsley at the DW Stadium.

Maloney states he’s pleased to see the trio involved in training and pushing to feature.

"The squad is looking the same,” he said.

"Jonny Smith is back training- we’re really glad.

"It was nice to have him properly back.

"It might be too soon for him, but I always leave it to the last moment.

"Jordan Jones is looking a lot closer to giving us minutes on the pitch, and Liam Shaw is really pushing to get into the squad, so I’ll make a decision on if he is ready or not.”

Meanwhile, Thelo Aasgaard isn’t expected back for around a month due to the shoulder injury he picked up in the recent draw with Carlisle.

"From the timeframe the doctor has given us, we’ll probably know more in the next four or five days whether it’s going to be four to six weeks,” Maloney added.

"At the moment it’s looking that way, so hopefully it stays like that.”

Maloney admits he’s looking forward to being back at the DW Stadium for this weekend’s game against Barnsley.

"We had a brilliant atmosphere against Northampton, at times on the ball we looked really good,” he stated.

"Now we need to be as good out of possession as we were in it to give ourselves a chance of winning the game.

"I want to make the game as hard as I can for Barnsley- they’ve got some really good players and I know their manager well.

"They had an incredible result against Port Vale, and in other games it’s been more difficult.

"I like how they play, they can do a bit of both- they can play through you but are also really dangerous with a longer pass.

"It’ll be a tough game and I need our players to bring a desire not to get beat.

"We want to have a connection with our home support- it was really strong last year.

"I want to give the fans a team that fights to the death for three points.”