JAK Hickman and Jamie Mascoll have not been registered in Wanderers’ first team squad with the EFL – but Ian Evatt insists they can still play a part this season.

Lists published by the league yesterday confirmed that Bolton had registered 21 senior players, leaving one space to be potentially filled.

Ex-Sunderland and QPR defender Joel Lynch remains on Evatt’s radar having trained well with the club over the last few weeks but it is understood the 33-year-old has been instructed to return next week with little training time between the games at Mansfield and Southend.

Evatt maintains that the gap could also be filled by either Hickman or Mascoll if they impress on the training ground.

Speaking on the decision to exclude the pair from the registered list, he told The Bolton News: “We are limited to the numbers we can have and had to make a decision on the players we registered and those we didn’t initially because of our transfer targets in the window but as you can see there is still space in the squad to re-register once they get themselves back into the group.

“But it is down to them to get their head down, prove it and get into this squad at the moment because it is very competitive.”

The influx of players on deadline day has pushed players like Hickman and Mascoll to the fringes of the squad, and Evatt concedes there is a risk that some could become disenfranchised.

But the Bolton boss has challenged any players who are currently out of the picture to look carefully at what they can do to get back into his first team plans.

“That’s football,” he said. “I said last week that the key part of football is self-analysis and being honest with yourself. Managers don’t pick teams, the players pick the team with what they do on a day-to-day basis.

“If you do the right things every single day then the manager cannot ignore you forever. It is down to them to get themselves back into the team.

“I am more than fair with that. If they show what I want them to then they are more than welcome. The door is not shut on anyone.”

Liam Edwards, who has not made a first team appearance since last season, has also been excluded in the list.

The centre-half shattered his kneecap in a training ground accident in February 2020 and recently underwent surgery to remove screws inserted into the injury which were causing an obstruction to his recovery.

The 24-year-old is, however, contracted until the summer of 2022.