Wigan Athletic boss Steve Bruce admits Sunday's match against Bolton is their biggest of the season.
X-rays today confirmed Emile Heskey has not suffered a fresh break after the striker, who missed two months with a broken foot before Christmas, hobbled off during Sunday's clash with Arsenal.
"We saw this against City and he was a handful for Arsenal. A few goals would now really be the icing on the cake.
"We're up for the Bolton game because it's a huge clash. I labelled the Bolton game a cup final last weekend and it is so very important. Moving six points clear of Bolton would be a huge gap at this stage of the season. It will be a lot to make up in the remaining games and it's certainly tighter than ever at the bottom. I never thought Newcastle and Middlesbrough would be involved in the relegation battle but they've been sucked into it - the more the merrier you might say!
"We haven't been conceding goals. When we lost heavily at Bolton before Christmas I drove back home thinking we were in serious trouble. We needed to get resilience from somewhere and we've done just that. We are now looking a difficult team to beat.
"We had taken one point from 11 games beforehand but the players deserve a lot of praise for the way they've responded.
"They knuckled down, we made changes and we look far better. I'm not a big one for stats but I studied them after the Arsenal game and we covered a terrific distance.
"We again showed tremendous character and it's a team effort."
