Sky Bet Championship: Bolton boss Neil Lennon is struggling with injuries ahead of Millwall clash

Bolton head to Millwall on Friday night in the midst of an injury crisis up front, with Emile Heskey set to play for the club's under-21s on Monday.

Wanderers boss Neil Lennon confirmed Max Clayton's season is over after the former Crewe trainee had surgery this week to repair the torn anterior cruciate ligament injury he sustained against Reading.

Loanee Joe Mason is out for months with a hamstring injury while Craig Davies will not return from the same problem until Boxing Day.

And after Jermaine Beckford was jettisoned to Preston on loan last month, Lennon's attacking options are seriously thin.

That may speed up a decision on whether former England international Heskey, 36, is worthy of a short-term deal and the next step in his trial process could be a game against Reading in the U21 Premier League Cup at the start of next week.

"He's still a little bit short of where we'd like him to be condition-wise," Lennon revealed.

"There's a game on Monday that we're hoping to get permission for him to play.

"In the meantime he's working hard behind the scenes, trying to get his fitness up. If we can get him through the game on Monday we'll have a better idea where we are with him."

With Heskey as yet only training with the club, Lennon is likely to pick either former Milwall academy prospect Conor Wilkinson or 36-year-old veteran Eidur Gudjohnsen to start in attack against the Lions.

Wanderers have failed to score in their past two games - and have found the net just twice since November 7 - but Lennon has presided over a current six-game unbeaten run.

"The goals have just dried up but that's understandable with the personnel we've got out," he explained.

"We've kept three clean sheets in a row and are unbeaten in six so I've got to take a lot of encouragement from that."

Millwall boss Ian Holloway is looking for back-to-back wins for the first time since the opening two games of the season.

A wretched run of one victory in 15 saw the Lions tumble down the table following a bright start to the campaign, but they stopped the rot with a 1-0 success at fellow strugglers Brighton last Friday,

"It's onwards and upwards. Let's see if we can get two in a row and see where we will be," said Holloway.

"In recent weeks I don't think we've got what I feel our play has deserved.

"But my team have done me proud ever since I have been here. We climbed away from relegation with eight games left last season, so let's see if we can build and get towards the other end of this table.

"And if we don't get what we want let's keep fighting and keep working."