STUART McCall admits Wigan’s financial worries will send a shudder through the lower divisions.

The Championship side became the first to go into administration since COVID-19 caused chaos to the football industry.

Their sudden demise will cause concern in League One and Two as they talk of a potential restart from as early as the end of next month.

McCall’s spirits had been lifted by the suggestion of a new start date – with the possibility of beginning training again within a couple of weeks.

But the Wigan news is a reminder of the perilous state that the game currently finds itself in.

The City boss said: “What happened with Wigan came as a total shock to everybody.

“I certainly feel for Cookie (Paul Cook) the manager because they have been going so well.

“They had the best results in the Championship in 2020, not just since they restarted but going back over the whole year.

“They had another great win over Stoke the other night to get further away from the bottom. But now they are right back in it when you take off the 12 points.

“My first reaction when I heard about Wigan was thinking there will be a lot of clubs in Leagues One and Two quite worried.

“I don’t know the ins and outs. But if they are struggling, some clubs will be thinking, ‘we can’t afford to unfurlough players at this moment to come back unless there are any revenue streams’.

“They’ve had to play without any crowds and maybe a light will come on with some owners who will wonder why we are trying to rush back.

“But then you look at Scottish football, which I always keep an eye on because they are ahead of us, and they are discussing being able to get certain crowds in by September.”

McCall is waiting to ramp up his recruitment plans once they have a firm date in place for the 2020-2021 kick-off.

Clubs must also decide on the proposal to introduce a £1.5 million salary cap for League Two for next season, which was debated at Tuesday’s EFL meeting. A vote is likely to take place at the end of the month.

He added: “We got the details of what was being proposed and there is a list as long as your arm of things that need to be discussed.

“But I did see that they were trying to possibly get us back to train mid-July with an August 29 or early September start.

“I know there is nothing set in stone but it got me excited straight away. It certainly gives you a bit of hope.

“But then things change quickly. You see there’s the lockdown in Leicester and that Bradford could be close to being the next one.

“My lad is over in America and certain states there are spiking after thinking they had got the virus under control.

“It’s peaks and troughs with everything at the moment. You get the feeling of that bit of progression and then there is more negativity.

“From a selfish football point of view, you start thinking about getting back for training and there are more and more agents ringing.

“Then the next minute, you get the bad news about what's going on at Wigan. You can't just down tools again but we’ve got to be ready for the ups and downs as we go along.”