IAN Evatt is looking forward to returning to normality at Wanderers after the club’s Christmas Covid nightmare.

Three successive games were postponed over the festive period – but word from the club is that everything is on track for a return on New Year’s Day at Rotherham United.

Wanderers have suffered a few separate breakouts of the virus within the squad and playing staff, but Evatt says every effort has been made to stick to the league’s stringent protocols since the training ground reopened on Monday.

Uncertainty over fixtures has made the last few weeks challenging for the Bolton boss and his players.

“It has been difficult,” he said. “Obviously it was difficult with the injuries but now it's more difficult with the Covid situation because it isn’t really down to us.

“We can only report to the EFL and the FA what is happening inside our own changing room. Then it’s down to them to make the decision over whether games are called off or not.

“We have to provide substantial evidence on who’s available, when they’re available, who’s suffering with illness, and off the back of that the EFL will then make a decision which they deem fair.

“We have been doing the best we could.”

Wanderers’ last outing was at Accrington on December 11, a 1-0 defeat which triggered a some much-publicised frustration among the Whites fans.

Bolton are currently placed 15th with their points haul of 26 putting them closer to the bottom four than the top six.

But Evatt remains confident that the second half of the campaign will be a positive one – and says the story so far is comparable with his last few years in management.

“I think they’ve all been quite similar – they’ve all been complicated,” he said. “I had rough spells when I won the league with Barrow, we had rough spells when we got promoted last season, we had rough spells in the first season I was a manager when we finished the highest we had for many years.

“You have to weather these storms – it’s just how it is, it’s the nature of the beast. We started this season superbly, everyone was excited, confidence was high.

“Then all of a sudden, we get walloped by injuries and things change really quickly.

“The first half of this season has been two halves really – first half excellent, second half not very good. What it has done is given us another opportunity to reset and go again.

“Like we saw last season, the second half was excellent. I’m really excited about the second half of this season. Hopefully we can keep people in one piece, we can strengthen the team in January and attack the games – we’ve got lots of good home games coming up. Hopefully it won’t be long before we see ourselves pushing up the table again. But for now it’s about getting through this situation, keeping ourselves focused and mentally strong, and getting ready to go again.”