Anxious wait over Wigan Athletic striker as injury jinx continues

Gary Caldwell admits Wigan Athletic are keeping their collective fingers crossed that the injury which forced Scott Hogan off the field during Wigan Athletic's draw with against Mansfield Town won't keep him out for any length of time.

The veteran striker had to be helped from the field just after the half-hour mark against the Stags after suffering a hefty challenge just inside the Latics half, with Christian Saydee coming on to replace him.

Saydee himself is still feeling his way back into the fold after a calf injury sustained in pre-season, meaning Caldwell is keeping his fingers crossed.

"It's an ankle injury, and we'll find out towards the end of the week how bad it is," said the Latics boss.

"He didn't look great, he wasn't moving great, but we don't know yet."

Hogan was promoted back to the starting line-up for Saydee, who made his first start of the campaign against Bromley at the weekend, after several impressive cameos off the bench.

"Christian has obviously only just come back from injury, and he's played every single game since he's done so - either from the bench or from the start," said Caldwell.

"The reason I went with Scott tonight, is I wanted to have the option of finishing with Scott and Christian together.

"It turns out they wiped him (Scott) out, so we couldn't finish with Scott. But I thought that if I started with Christian, I'd have to take him off at some point.

"If we were chasing the game, I just wanted to give myself the option of having the two of them, so it was nothing to do with performance in recent weeks.

"And I thought all of our finishers tonight were excellent. Christian played longer than we would have liked, but he lasted the game, and Mells (Jon Mellish), Akeel (Higgins), Fraser (Murray) and Ryan Trevitt all deserve credit for the way they performed and impacted the game."

The injury to Hogan could not have come at a worse time for Latics, with Sonny Perkins already out injured, and Dara Costelloe a surprise absence against Mansfield after a substitute run-out against Bromley.

"Dara has a groin problem that he's had for a number of weeks," added Caldwell.

"We brought him back against Huddersfield, and he was involved again from the bench on Saturday, but it flared up again.

"He'll probably be out for a couple of weeks, maybe even four weeks.

"He's had a scan, and it showed that he won't be available for a few weeks.

"We've also got Archie Harris out, Sonny Perkins out, others (Luke Harris) still out, and these players need to keep working hard to get back as soon as possible."