ZAT Knight will confirm he has signed a two-year deal to stay with Wanderers today.

The big defender returned to Euxton for training on Saturday after holidaying in Los Angeles and completed the formalities on a new contract on reduced terms, which will run until the summer of 2014.

Knight is understood to have turned down offers from a handful of other clubs – including Cardiff City – to stick around and add experience to Wanderers’ promotion push, and will now presumably face a fight with new signing Matt Mills for a place alongside Tim Ream at the heart of the defence.

Owen Coyle would also like to add another younger centre back to his ranks but could wait and see what happens in the loan market.sd Meanwhile, Coyle has confirmed that Stuart Holden has been granted extra time in the States to complete his rehabilitation programme before returning for light training duties at Euxton.

The US international has now started running again nine months after knee surgery on damaged cartilage and though he could be hurried in order to play against Burnley in the opening game of the season, Coyle is happy to adopt a safety-first approach.

“I don’t anticipate Stuart being available for the first few games,” he said.

“Where we are, we could push him to the maximum and have him, but we need to use kid gloves because there are so many games in the Championship.

“He’s over in America just now and he’s comfortable in that environment.

“I would hope not too far into it he’ll be ready to return.”

After releasing 15 players at the end of last season, Coyle insists he is in no hurry to add to his squad. A total of 31 squad numbers were handed out, although they also include players currently unavailable like Fabrice Muamba and untested youngsters.

But while he may be lighter on numbers after relegation, Coyle remains optimistic that the club’s long-term future is bright.

“Having patched up for a couple of seasons, we can now start with a blank canvas and look to bring young quality players into the football club,” he said.

“When you add that to the mix and Stuart Holden coming back at some point as well then there’s a lot of reason for optimism there with the squad we’ve got.”