Martinez sweats on Kirkland injury

Roberto Martinez is waiting on news of goalkeeper Chris Kirkland after injury forced him out of Wigan's defeat against Birmingham.

The Latics chief rued the loss of his influential number one midway through the first half of Saturday's game at the DW Stadium when a back strain looked to have prematurely ended his involvement.
Mike Pollitt replaced Kirkland and could do nothing to prevent the Blues launching a second half fight back to cancel out Charles N'Zogbia's strike and eventually run out 3-2 winners. However Martinez felt Kirkland's absence did not help his players and he hopes to have him back in time for Saturday's trip to Stoke.
"The loss of Chris was important because he is an important figure in the dressing room and on the pitch," Martinez told the Evening Post.
"We'll assess in the next 24 hours and we'll go from there."
Martinez will definitely be without Hendry Thomas at Stoke after the Honduran picked up his fifth yellow card of the campaign.