JACK Hobbs has agreed a deal with Wanderers – but cannot play until the club emerge from administration, The Bolton News understands.

The 30-year-old centre-back agreed terms with Bolton on Friday but his registration was not passed by the EFL in time for him to feature against Wycombe the following day.

Now, four days on, Hobbs remains in limbo as Phil Parkinson prepares his squad for the visit of Coventry City this weekend.

It is considered unlikely the league will give Parkinson licence to register more players unless the Football Ventures consortium show tangible progress in their takeover bid.

Tickets had been due to go on sale at 9am yesterday for the Coventry game but were suspended 10 minutes before being released to the general public. An announcement is expected this morning, which is likely to include a reduction on prices which were criticised by supporters when they were released earlier this week.

Parkinson believes new ownership must be installed before the weekend, or Wanderers could face serious consequences on their recruitment.

A handful of players are waiting to see if they will be offered deals. Craig Conway, Danny Lafferty, Billy Clarke and Ben Pringle are all training at Lostock on a daily basis in the hope that a takeover is completed.

“If you go back three weeks I sent an email to the prospective owners and administrators saying what needed to be done right away to give us a chance,” Parkinson told The Bolton News.

“Negotiations needed to start taking place immediately to get us ready. And because of all the chaos that had gone on, things have not been implemented the way they should have been.

“I’m not saying there’s anyone at fault for that, it’s just the new people coming in don’t feel they have the power to start negotiating contracts because they are not the official owners yet.

“Trialists have come in, some have gone. Players have been ready to sign, and they have gone. But there’s still the ability to get a decent team at this level – it just has to happen now, it can’t possibly drag on any longer.”