WANDERERS are close to a clean bill of health for the opening day of the season.

Defender Eoin Toal was in full training today (Thursday) and could yet feature in Ian Evatt’s squad against Lincoln City – and the Whites have also been given a boost with Jon Dadi Bodvarsson and Jack Iredale also returned to fitness.

“We have had one or two knocks and niggles over the last week playing against West Brom and Everton, which were tough games, but everyone seems to be over that now and they will be fit and available,” said the Bolton boss.

“Eoin has trained today and he’s absolutely fine.”

He added: “But whether he is part of the squad is a question I am not willing to answer!”

After several weeks on the training ground, an unbeaten record in seven friendly games and eight new arrivals for the first team, Evatt is confident his squad is shaping up nicely to meet their ambitious target of automatic promotion.

“We have done a lot of work pre-season and it seems to have flown by again,” he said. “But I feel that we are ready.

“I don’t get nervous, that is probably not the right word, but there is excitement about trying to better what we did last year. That is the ambition.

“We have to earn it, there is no entitlement at all, it is about us and our performances over the entire season. It is the old cliché about being a marathon not a sprint and even though we’ll try to start fast as we always do, we just want to achieve the goals we have set for ourselves.”

George Johnston has had an operation on a torn knee ligament, which is likely to rule him out for the entire of the season and Evatt has confirmed that the procedure has been a success.

The defender signed a contract extension this week which will allow him to focus fully on his rehabilitation.

“The surgery has gone well, the only downside was that he said he tried to have a fight with the anaesthetic and lost,” he said. “Other than that he is in a pretty good place.

“The fact we have given him a new deal takes all the pressure off him now and lets him focus on what is important, and that is getting fit again.”