GEORGE Johnston’s season-ending injury will not mean Wanderers dive straight into the transfer market for another centre-half.

Ian Evatt says he will not necessarily look to replace like-for-like after losing his brave left-sided defender to a cruciate ligament injury sustained in last Saturday’s friendly at Bamber Bridge.

With Eoin Toal on the mend and potentially back for the start of the League One campaign, the Whites are looking at bringing a player more akin to MJ Williams – who was sold to MK Dons earlier this week – who can play either as a deep-lying midfielder or fill in at the back, when needed.

Wanderers will take four fit central defenders to Chester tomorrow afternoon and Evatt believes that with Toal also closer to a return he can concentrate his search on an all-rounder.

“What George’s injury probably means is that Jack Iredale is seen more as a centre-back,” he told The Bolton News. “But it doesn’t necessarily mean we need to buy another centre-half.

“Eoin Toal is doing better now, and that is really important. There is a chance he might make the start of the season and we have Gethin Jones, Will Forrester and obviously Ricardo Santos who can play across that three as well.

“What we might do is get someone in who can play in multiple positions, i.e. a pivot that can play centre-back, for instance.”

Iredale, who has returned successfully from a knee injury sustained in January, was used primarily as a wing-back on his arrival from Cambridge United but could now be moved into the middle of defence.

Wanderers are looking to assemble a more flexible squad this season which will enable them to better match different styles of opposition.

Explaining his outlook on recruitment, the Bolton boss says he plans to ensure each position caters for all eventualities in what he hopes will be a push for automatic promotion.

“We are looking at how we build the squad all the time,” he added. “There is a lot of thinking that goes into it and the higher you go, the easier it is to get the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ that is capable of dealing with different positions.

“At this level it is more about finding specific personnel who can deal with specific circumstances and different opposition, some might be really talented dribblers, some might be really talented passers of the ball, some can be destroyers.

“But what we need to do is assemble a squad that can handle the whole range of different things and that is what me and Chris (Markham) are working really hard to achieve.”

Meanwhile, Evatt is looking forward to seeing more from new wing-back signing Josh Dacres-Cogley, who has made an eye-catching start to the pre-season.

“Josh has really excited us from the minute he walked through the door,” he added. “He is an extremely good athlete and he has looked really good in training sessions, so hopefully he can continue that improvement as we head towards the season.”