Jay Spearing has been left in an impossible position.
The former Liverpool midfielder could be forced to spend the rest of the season on the sidelines as cash-strapped Bolton seek to avoid triggering a £100,000 payment to his childhood club.
Spearing moved to the Reebok Stadium on loan in 2012 before signing a permanent deal with the Championship club a year later for a fee of £1.75million.
But part of that deal was a stipulation that £100,000 of that amount would fall due only when Spearing made 23 appearances in a single season for the Trotters,
according to the Liverpool Echo.
Bolton, who have been rescued from administration by a new ownership group, are in no position to make the payment so, with Spearing sitting on 22 games this campaign, the 27-year-old was forced to sit out Saturday's game against Preston, which Bolton lost to further speed their likely descent into League One.
And boss Neil Lennon revealed that requests to delay the payment have so far fallen on deaf ears at Anfield.
"We had to leave Jay out because we can’t afford to pay money to Liverpool,” Lennon said. “We did ask if they would defer it but they said no, and that’s fine, it’s their prerogative.
“If he plays another game we have to pay a certain amount of money to them but we can’t afford that right now.
“That leaves him in limbo, a difficult position. And that is hard to take as well because I think we missed him against Preston.”
Both Lennon and the club's new owners claim to have been taken aback by the clause in Spearing's deal, however, not everyone at the club appears to have been clueless.
Last season, Spearing was loaned out to Blackburn Rovers after playing 21 times for Bolton.
