Joe Bunney was involved in a car crash over the weekend, and the most important thing to say is that everyone hopes for a full recovery.
The defender will be kept in hospital until Wednesday, with broken ribs and a collarbone, and it’ll be presumably a while now before we get to see one of the transfer deadline day signings in action. It isn’t exactly a paper cut.
He’s not the first left-back we’ve signed this summer who has gone on to be injured very quickly. Josh Earl signed on loan from Preston, and with his acquisition being announced pretty much along with the team sheet at Wycombe, he then went and injured his ankle in a tackle minutes into the game, and will out of action until at least next month.
It has become a bit of a cursed position.
What do Bolton do from here then? Our squad is still pretty thin, understandably. Quality and quantity was brought in last week, but we were, or are, a few injuries from ending up near where we were. For now, fellow new signing Jake Wright could fill that slot, which would mean keeping Yoan Zouma, or when he recovers from his injury, Liam Edwards in the middle with Jack Hobbs. Josh Emmanuel, normally a left-back, could probably go there too. Joe White, who has generally filled that slot in the opening weeks of the season, may yet keep his place.
Do we consider trying to sign a replacement. James Meredith is available on a free, Markus and Martin Olsson are also free agents after leaving Derby and Swansea over the summer. Meredith may the most realistic of those three, but there is also a case for not signing anyone. It will add another player to our squad, unless Bunney can be left out due to a long-term injury. Keith Hill may feel he still needs to add in other areas. Earl should be back in a few weeks at least. If we did sign someone, they would probably succumb to some freak accident, like a scene from Final Destination anyway.
Whatever happens, it’s typical, and once again we hope for a full and speedy recovery for Bunney.