ZACH Clough is counting down the days to his first-team return next month but admitted: "I’ll be a marked man".

Wanderers expect their young talisman to be back in action in roughly four week’s time following surgery on a dislocated shoulder that has kept him out of the team since mid-September.

A comeback cannot happen a moment too soon for the 20-year-old but Whites fans may notice this time, Clough will be a little wiser.

The young striker conceded Championship football became a little tougher this season, when he was no longer an unknown quantity to opposition defences.

So forewarned and forearmed, the academy graduate has vowed to change the way he goes about his game when he makes his long-awaited return to Neil Lennon’s squad for the festive schedule.

“I’m anxious to get there as soon as I can,” he told the Bolton News.

“When I was out there earlier this season it felt different. It felt that maybe I was getting more attention.

“I don’t know what other clubs talk about in the dressing rooms but it felt like teams knew who I was, and that made it a bit harder.

“I think I’ve learned from that now. I need to change my game a little bit and maybe play a little bit higher up the pitch – make it more difficult for people to mark me.”

Clough has kept himself involved, and it was on a community visit to St Matthew’s Primary School in Little Lever that The Bolton News caught up with him for an update on his injury.

Watching Wanderers, the youngster admitted, has been difficult for the last two months since his second shoulder dislocation this year.

In the meantime he has signed an extended contract and seen enough about his team-mates to say with confidence that the club can rise up the table soon under manager Lennon.

“There’s not much further to drop,” he said. “That makes we want to get out there and help them as quickly as I can.

“I like watching the players and seeing how they can improve – except for when they are losing. I find that tough to watch sometimes, pretty frustrating.

“We know we can turn it around. There is too much quality in that squad for us to be where we are in this league, compared to some of the other teams around us.

“Maybe it’s a little confidence, it’s hard to say,” he added. “But one thing I know is that this manager is the perfect person for us. He’s the one who can get us back up the table.”

Clough is maturing quickly from the carefree youngster who burst on to the scene at the start of the year with a goal against Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup and now looks completely at ease with the responsibility of being a senior professional.

But he is quick to stamp out any suggestion he has ‘made it’. An old head on young shoulders, perhaps, although the striker smiled at this interviewer’s choice of words.

“Hey, they’re strong now,” he said, referring to his past injuries.

“I do feel responsibility but it’s not like I’m saying I’ll walk straight back into the team. I need to work hard and make sure I deserve it.

“It won’t be easy for a young lad to get straight back in. it doesn’t matter where the club is in the table.

“I still look at myself as a young lad and know I’m still learning. That won’t change.”

Meanwhile, former Wanderers striker Ricardo Vaz Te has signed for Championship rivals Charlton Athletic.

The Portuguese striker has been on trial at a number of clubs and had also been training with the Whites over the last few weeks at Euxton.

It is understood that he was not being considered for a contract at Wanderers but he penned a deal at The Valley yesterday which takes him up to the end of the season.

The 29-year-old was a free agent after leaving Turkish side Akhisar Belediyespor in the summer and has also played for West Ham, Hibernian, Barnsley and Greek club Panionios since leaving Wanderers in 2010.