KEITH Hill has confirmed that Yoan Zouma was recently granted leave back home to France after picking up an injury.

The Bolton boss told The Bolton News that Zouma – who has not featured since being withdrawn at half time during the 5-1 defeat at Lincoln City – has now returned to the group.

“He’s trained with us this morning,” he said. “He has been injured. He has been back to France.

“That was all part of the injury process and a little bit of family time.”

Various rumours had circulated over Zouma’s absence – but Hill said he would not give speculation the time of day.

“It’s not the talk, it’s the cheap talk, the trash talk, that’s of no concern to me,” he added.

Wanderers head to MK Dons today with an order from the manager to make an impression on their hosts.

Russell Martin’s side has undergone a makeover during the course of the season and since losing 1-0 at the UniBol in November has managed to bed down a new possession-based style.

Hill reckons his team can take heart from their last meeting and go to Milton Keynes in a positive mood.

“We have to go and impose our game on them,” he said. “We need to concentrate on us now.

“We have to be aware of opponents and we’ll express concerns if MK Dons start doing ‘this’ for example but we have to make sure we are impressing ourselves assertively on opponents.

“We have to take some confidence from the last result. It’s a great stimulus playing football. Your working week – you want it to be reflected in the way you perform. We have to create an identity of the way we play and results will follow. We want to try and get back on track.”

Hill hopes a result this afternoon can brighten the mood, which took a darker turn with last weekend’s defeat to Wycombe.

“We want a winning tonic so the players feel good about themselves and their reputations for the rest of the season. Winning is the perfect tonic for any team that’s losing, but there’s no easy fix.”