IT’S ‘all systems go’ for Dion Charles’s first team return at Wanderers this weekend.

The Northern Ireland international has been passed fit after a thigh injury and could even be played from the start against Sheffield Wednesday.

Charles has only featured once for the Whites this season, at Ipswich Town, but Ian Evatt is confident he will be able to step straight back into the action.

“He is over it,” he told The Bolton News. “It was one of those injuries where he was aware of it but felt he could carry on and just out of precaution, we had it scanned, and then we found a bit of damage which could have worsened.

“It might not have worsened, but we chose not to take that risk because he is a big player for us and because we have other options there which can give him the time to heal properly.

“He has healed properly now and he is training fine. We just felt that Morecambe was a step too soon and more of a risk than if we waited a couple more days and put him back to Sheffield Wednesday.

“That’s what we are looking to do. At the moment, it is all systems go!”

Charles has been a regular starter for Evatt since signing from Accrington Stanley in January and his busy, harassing style has proved popular with the fans.

Evatt says it is also the reason he did not want to bring him back sooner, with pace so important to the striker’s game.

“That’s one of Dion’s assets - he catches pigeons – that is just what he does.

“We need him fit, firing and 100 per cent, and if he is that, then he is a big threat for everybody.”

In Charles’s absence Wanderers have managed to stay unbeaten and keep three successive clean sheets in the league – with all the goals coming from defence and midfield.

Evatt has invested in improving his side’s set plays this season and has increased the amount of analysis done on corner and free-kicks in an effort to find more ‘marginal gains’ to help results.

“We’re creating chances and we created chances on Saturday,” he said. “It was actually nice and refreshing to hear an opposition manager praise our set plays, which was very pleasing.

“But I think the work that we have done there, you can see that we worked on them, we are giving them more importance. We are really drilling down into the detail of set plays and I thought on Saturday we looked a real threat every time we got one.”

“We’ll keep working hard with that because it can win you games, it almost won us one on Saturday.”