Ian Evatt gives an update of Xavier Amaechi’s Bolton Wanderers future

Xavier Amaechi joined Bolton Wanderers from Hamburg on loan at the start of the season initially for a six-month period which was later extended to the rest of the season. 

Amaechi hasn’t had the best start to life with Bolton as he picked up an injury in pre-season which left him requiring surgery and has since struggled with a hamstring injury and foot fracture too.

As a result of this, the 21-year-old has only made ten league appearances this season but has scored one goal and one assist.

Bolton boss Ian Evatt granted him an appearance on Monday in his side’s 3-1 victory against Accrington and he stayed on for just over an hour.

Reflecting on his performance, Evatt told The Bolton News: “I thought he did okay.

“We started 4-2-3-1 with Dapo [Olodapo Afolayan] and Xav [Amaechi] in their natural positions but we couldn’t play and figure out a way to play through the press because they were so man for man.

“We changed to 3-5-2 then and Xav had to go wing-back. He fatigued because he hasn’t played a lot of football, but I thought he did okay. I’m pleased for him that we managed to get him a game and a start and he’s not let himself down.”

Now Bolton will have to make a decision over the future of the winger and when asked about it, Evatt said: “We don’t know. We are looking at things all the time.

“We have certainly started to make plans and there are conversations happening behind the scenes.

“We don’t feel like we’re a million miles away once we get everyone fit and available but of course we need to improve because as much as we feel like we’ve had a good season, it’s not been good enough.

“To get to those top spots, we have to catch up I think 20-odd points so that’s where we must make it up and that means looking at