Former Bolton captain David Wheater has warned that the club's players will be feeling the effects of the recent off the field troubles around the team heavily.

A number of the club's players have not been paid in full since March, and Wheater, who is now a free agent training with Scottish side Kilmarnock, believes that that will have hit a number of the squad hard, despite the perception around the amounts paid to footballers.

Speaking to the Bolton News about the club's situation and its impact on the squad, Wheater revealed: “At the start, some of the fans were like ‘you are footballers, you can afford it’ but we’re not at that Premiership level wage now.

"Some of the younger lads and those older ones who haven’t saved their money as well must be on their backside, really. It has been really tough for them."

Speaking from a personal point of view about the impact of the past four months, Wheater added: “I’ve played for 14 years professionally and saved well, to be honest, my mum and dad made sure I did. So this last four months haven’t been perfect, but we’ve managed to get by."

Wheater's role as the squad's captain also meant he had a big role in the decision not to play the club's penultimate game of the season, at home to Brentford, and the 32-year-old revealed that it was not a decision that the squad took lightly, while also claiming that manager Phil Parkinson did not try to stop them from boycotting the game.

Speaking about the decision not to play, Wheater said: “We want to play for the fans, we want to entertain them, but not getting paid for four months wouldn’t happen in many other jobs.

“The manager didn’t tell us we had to do anything – he trusted us to do what we thought was best and that was what we thought was best at the time."

The verdict

It is hard not to feel sympathy for Wheater and his Bolton teammates here.

You wouldn't be surprised if the uncertainty around their futures, both immediate and long term, had an affect on their performances on the pitch last season as the club slumped to relegation to League One.

What Wheater says here highlights the gulf there is between wages at the higher ends of the Premier League and the rest of English football, and the fact that it has got to this position for the Bolton squad seems almost unbelievable.

With plans for next season only just starting to take shape at the club and a 12 point deduction for entering administration looming over them, you feel that it could be yet another difficult campaign for the club next season.