JON Dadi Bodvarsson hopes his battle back from the brink at Millwall can be a lesson for other strikers who find themselves stuck in a rut.

The Icelander was frozen out of Gary Rowett’s plans in the Championship for the first half of this season and going through a spell he described as the toughest in his professional career.

But a January move to Wanderers transformed things completely – and Bodvarsson says his example should provide some hope for other players who find themselves in the same situation.

“I think it is important for players who have been in the same position as I was – in a dip at Millwall – not to be too emotionally attached to it,” he told The Bolton News.

“You have to keep going, working hard, stay fit, because eventually it won’t be that bad, something positive will come out of it.

“I just stuck to it and eventually you will find a place where you are loving it and you are getting that same energy back to you, the love, and you need it as a player.

“And sometimes it is just about luck where you land. You never know until you are actually at the place how it is going to be.

“You get all the promises in the world when you join a club, obviously, but you never really know until you are there.

“Thankfully for me every box is checked here at Bolton and I love it here.”

Bodvarsson started six of Wanderers’ last nine games of the season and finished with seven goals in a versatile attacking line alongside Dapo Afolayan, Dion Charles and Amadou Bakayoko.

“It is great,” he said of Ian Evatt’s free-scoring front line. “Baka and me are finding each other well and Dapo is always working around us when he is playing too. Dion is making those unselfish runs and stretching the game out.

“It is really attractive how different the options are up front so it makes it easier for the manager to rotate.”

 

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