Elias Kachunga is in line to make his full league debut for Wanderers when Ian Evatt’s men go to Charlton Athletic on Tuesday night.
A head injury sustained by wingman Lloyd Isgrove in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Sunderland rules the Wales international out of the trip to the Valley.
And summer signing Kachunga will therefore come in for his first league start after coming off the bench in each of Wanderers’ League One fixtures so far.
Boss Ian Evatt confirmed: “Lloyd will miss tomorrow, not because of concussion but because of the extent of the wound and where it is.
“If he had to head the ball where it’s situated it could easily come open again and we’d have problems then, so he will be unavailable until Saturday.
“We’ll miss him because we are lacking options at the top end of the pitch at the moment with Bakayoko’s injury and Amaechie’s injury.
“Lloyd is a player we all love. With his work ethic the fans love him for that and we do and he’s going to be a miss.
“But when someone steps out the team because of injury it’s someone else’s opportunity.
“Someone has to step in and take that opportunity and make that shirt their own.
“That will happen tomorrow night. Kacha will come in and hopefully he will take his opportunity.”
Kachunga has had to wait patiently for a starting chance since his arrival from Sheffield Wednesday in August.
But the former Huddersfield Town forward will now be tasked with looking to help Wanderers sharpen their cutting edge after missed chances saw them leave Sunderland empty-handed after out-playing the joint League One leaders for long periods.
And Evatt may also contemplate further changes as his side swaps the North East for the South East with their lengthy trip to face an Addicks side struggling at the other end of the table.
“We’ve got a strong squad of players,” he added.
“We will have a look at how we are physically. We may need to freshen things up and we have the opportunity to do that and go again.”
Goalkeeper Joel Dixon is okay to continue his run in the side, despite suffering a broken nose in an early collision at Sunderland.
And Evatt also confirmed that midfielder Andrew Tutte had undergone successful surgery on his hamstring injury over the weekend as he starts a rehabilitation programme which will hopefully see him back in action in around three months.