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Wanderers revived contract talks with George Johnston after his season-ending knee injury with “absolute faith” he will return to top form on his recovery.
Ian Evatt revealed that attempts to tie the former Liverpool and Feyenoord defender down to a longer deal at the Toughsheet Community Stadium had been fruitless, up until a new approach was made by the club in the last few weeks.
Johnston was coming into the final 12 months of his existing contract but has now committed his future to the summer of 2026.
The 24-year-old had successful surgery this week to repair his anterior cruciate ligament and is expected to miss the whole 2023/24 campaign.
Wanderers brought him back to the negotiating table to remove any lingering concern over his future.
“We had certainly tried to make it (the contract) happen but it wasn’t a straightforward negotiation,” Evatt told The Bolton News.
“When the injury happened it kind of changed things and George hadn’t asked to re-engage, we made the call that it was the right thing to do. We wanted to support him moving forwards and he has jumped at the chance to stay with us.
“He understands completely what we are trying to do and the project we have got going on here, so it was really straightforward in the end for him to sign the three years and then for him to focus on his rehab, which was the most important thing for him right now.”
Johnston was Wanderers’ young player of the year in 2021/22 and last season part of a defence which kept a club record 26 clean sheets in all competitions.
Although he missed several weeks with ankle ligament damage in early 2023 his current lay-off is the first serious injury of his career. But Evatt is confident he will return to the same levels once again.
“I don’t doubt for a single second that George will get back to where he was, I have absolute faith he will,” he said.
“It would have been easy for this football club to wait, or to see if he is fully recovered before we made a decision on his contract but that isn’t the way we work. We support people, we back them, and we are backing him to come back fitter and stronger than ever.”
Wanderers have resigned themselves to being without Johnston for the whole season – and recovery time for cruciate surgery is usually nine months.
Evatt hopes that the timing of the injury will give him a chance to join in next summer’s pre-season preparations from the start.
“If you speak to George, I am sure he will have ambition to be playing this season,” he said. “But I don’t want to pressurise him with that, what we want to do is make sure he focusses on his rehabilitation and his recovery because it is a long one and he will have dark days and good days within that.
“We will support him through the tough spells and then the better ones will take care of themselves but George is a very focussed and very determined character and I have no issues with him taking it very seriously and making sure he comes back bigger, better and stronger.”
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