Evatt Relishing Arsenal Prospect

Ian Evatt August 2024

Ian Evatt has welcomed the chance to take on Arsenal in the Carabao Cup after Wanderers were handed a mouth-watering third-round tie away to the Gunners.

The Whites’ reward for beating Shrewsbury Town on Tuesday night is a first trip to the Emirates Stadium since 2011.

And Evatt is relishing the prospect of taking on the Premier League heavyweights when the date comes round in the final week of September.

“I think it's a great draw and the best draw we've had since I've been here anyway,” said the Whites’ boss, who has guided Wanderers into round three of the competition for the first time since 2017.

“We're very much looking forward to testing ourselves against one of the best teams in this country and Europe at the moment.

“That's exciting but we've got a lot of business to take care of before that.

“We've got three home league games and we've got a cup match (at Barrow in the EFL Trophy) so we need to park that a little bit and try and focus on what's really important and build momentum.”

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Klaidi Lolos Stoke

The first of those three successive home fixtures in League One comes against Exeter City on Saturday.

Wanderers have a couple of injury doubts as they look to secure a first league success of the campaign at the Toughsheet Stadium.

But none of them are too serious and Evatt expects closer to a full clean bill of health after the upcoming international break, with summer signing Klaidi Lolos also not too far off a comeback following the ankle injury he sustained in Wanderers’ opening-day win at Leyton Orient.

“Klaidi has had some good news,” confirmed Evatt. “There's no requirement of surgery so we're pushing ahead with the conservative route which is probably another four weeks away.

“Get to the other side of this international break and that's another two weeks gone and he’ll almost be there, which is great news for us.”

Longer-term absentee Carlos Mendes Gomes is also progressing well from the Achilles tendon injury he suffered at the end of February, with the forward potentially just a couple of months away from his own return.

Meanwhile, Wanderers have so far had four players called up for international duty, with Josh Sheehan named in new Wales' manager Craig Bellamy's first squad and Dion Charles, Eoin Toal and Luke Southwood all named by Northern Ireland for the start of their Nations League campaign.

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