WANDERERS have hatched an ambitious plan to get Gethin Jones back from a 22,000-mile double header with Australia in time for him to feature against Stevenage on Good Friday.

The Bolton vice-captain faces two World Cup qualifiers against Lebanon over the coming week, the first in Paramatta, West Sydney, and the second – switched because of instability in the Middle East – being played in the capital city of Canberra.

Graham Arnold’s side have a 100 per cent record in the group so far, having beaten Palestine and Bangladesh, and would be guaranteed qualification to the third round if they can win their next two games.

Jones flew out at the weekend to link up with the Socceroos but faces a quick turnaround after the second qualifier – which kicks off at 8.45am next Tuesday in the United Kingdom.

The club is confident that scheduled connecting flights and a carefully regimented sleep routine – in flight and prior to travel - will keep him fresh enough to be in contention on his arrival.

The defender is keen to keep himself in contention with the main event in USA, Canada and Mexico to be played in the summer of 2026, and as many as nine slots available to countries competing in FIFA’s Asia region.

Though Jones has represented Wales at Under-21 level and is a fluent Welsh speaker, he took up the option of representing his country of birth in the lead-up to January’s Asia Cup.

He now has three caps and is hoping to keep himself involved as another major tournament looms.

“I was made up to get the call again,” he said. “I’ve said before, playing at international level was something that I’d always wanted to do and the experience of playing in the Asia Cup was brilliant. This is a whole different experience now, World Cup qualifiers and looking ahead to a tournament in two years – it’s the sort of thing that as a little boy you sit and dream about.

“If I can keep putting in performances for Bolton, keep learning at international level and getting the call-ups then you never know what might happen.

“Australia have qualified before and I am sure we’ll be expected to do that again, so Lebanon is the first challenge and it will be a tough game,” he said. “As a team we want to make a good start, get off to a winning start, and then hopefully that leads all the way to qualifying for a World Cup finals, which is exciting.”

Australia hope to qualify for one of three six-team groups in the third round, of which the top two go straight to the World Cup – by far the most simple route to the finals. Otherwise, two more places are up for grabs in the fourth round, where teams who had finished third and fourth are drawn into two groups of three, and one more chance to qualify is offered to the best runner-up, who progress to the Inter Confederation Play-off.

Jones says playing international football in the Asian confederation has opened his eyes to some surprising things.

“It is a very different experience,” he said. “When I was heading out there and looking at the fixtures and you have got Syria – it’s a team I’d never even thought about playing.

“You’d think you’d walk into that game and win, perform to a top standard, but they were really tough opponents and we only just got the result. It was hard work.

“I wanted to take experience from the whole thing at international level – how they play, how they train, mixing up the playing style which is very different to the way we play here.

“You have the captain Matty Ryan, players like Jackson Irvine, and they are top professionals, so it was taking little things from them, how they train, how they look after themselves between games around the hotel and around the other boys, they were good lessons.”

The last time Jones made a dash from international duty to play for Bolton, the match lasted less than 10 minutes.

After playing at the Asian Cup in Qatar, Jones had a tricky set of connections to land back in the UK in time for last month’s game at Cambridge United. But torrential rain at he Abbey Stadium meant his return was somewhat shortlived.

“That was difficult,” he said. “I landed on the Sunday from Qatar and came straight in on Monday to train and travel to Cambridge. On the Tuesday morning I was still feeling it a bit, quite tired, and got a good sleep in the afternoon. When the manager asked if I was ready to play I was like: ‘100 per cent’ but the game was bizarre.

“The warm-up was fine, the passing was fine, the surface was fine, but then as soon as we went back into the changing room we could all hear the rain coming and started looking at each other and thinking ‘oh, no!’ “For myself it was a bit of a relief because I was feeling it. We were gutted for the fans who travelled but it was great to go back a couple of weeks later and get the three points.”