Jones Fit As Competition Drives Wanderers On

Gethin Jones has been given the all-clear to extend his ever-present League One record as Wanderers close in on a clean bill of health.

Jones suffered a dead leg in last weekend’s win over Shrewsbury Town and had to be substituted at half-time.

But the right-back has recovered in time to make the trip to Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday when Ian Evatt’s men will be looking to make it a hat-trick of league wins to move back into the play-off places.

“Gethin has trained today absolutely fine with no issues at all,” said Evatt.

“Liam Edwards is back training again, which is good, and Xav Amaechi is back running on the grass, so shouldn’t be too far away now.

“Maybe he will be another three or four weeks but other than that things are going well at the moment.”

Central defender Edwards is working his way back from a long-term absence but the Wanderers’ treatment room is thinning out with Amadou Bakayoko the latest return to the fray.

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The striker ended a six-week lay-off as a substitute against the Shrews before scoring twice in a 45-minute appearance against Liverpool’s U21s on Tuesday night.

Evatt changed all but one of his outfield players against the young Reds in the EFL Trophy.

Wanderers still ran out 4-1 winners to make it a hat-trick of wins in all competitions and Evatt believes the competition for places bodes well for Wanderers’ challenge at the top end of League One.

“We feel once everyone is fit and available we have good strength in depth,” added the Bolton boss.

“We can make 10 changes on Tuesday and still put out a really competitive team.

“I thought the boys were excellent – apart from the first 15 minutes I thought we controlled the game – and got a great result.

“It’s important as a group and a squad we keep pushing each other and keep raising those standards.

“The lads who are lucky enough to be in the first team at the moment – in that starting XI – know there are players waiting in the wings to take their place.

“Hopefully that makes them get to the levels they can do and gets us the good results.”

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