Lukas Jutkiewicz will assess his long-term future in the summer after the 24-year-old striker joined Bolton on loan in the final week of the January transfer window
Action Images / John Marsh
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Lukas Jutkiewicz will assess his long-term future in the summer.
The 24-year-old striker joined Bolton on loan in the final week of the January transfer window and will stay at the Reebok for the remainder of the current campaign.
However, he has almost two-and-a-half years remaining on his Boro deal and hasn’t given up hope of establishing himself at the club.
“At the minute I just want to have a strong end to the season and then re-assess things in the summer,” said Jutkiewicz.
“I’ve got this year and two more after it on my contract at Boro but I think I’ve walked into a really good changing room of boys here, there is a togetherness and a willingness to get out of the situation we’re in, so at the moment I want to be a part of that.”
Boro paid Coventry City £1.3m for Jutkiewicz two years ago. Manager at the time Tony Mowbray expected the strapping frontman to develop into a formidable physical specimen capable of terrorising defenders. But his progress has been hampered by injuries which have ultimately taken a toll on his confidence.
Before joining Bolton, Jutkiewicz had scored just one league goal for Boro this season.
Both Aitor Karanka and his current boss Dougie Freedman hope a new challenge with Bolton will give the player a much-needed boost of self-belief.
Jutkiewicz is certainly enjoying himself in the North-west.
“I’m obviously very happy to be here and very excited, so hopefully things will work out for both myself and the club,” he said.
“One thing is that I’ll always give my all on the pitch. I’m a hard-working striker who can hopefully score a few goals for the team.
“I don’t think Bolton are far away from being a very good team,” added Jutkiewicz, who has made two appearances for Bolton, ending up on the losing side on both occasions. I’m surprised that Bolton are down here.
“I knew the quality of the players in that dressing room from having played against them. That hasn’t changed now that I have played with them as well.
“This is an unforgiving league and it’s about learning when to play the dirty side of it, playing percentages, but I’m still surprised to see Bolton down there.”
Meanwhile, former Boro defender David Wheater has returned to full training with the Bolton squad.
The Redcar-born defender has been suffering from a knee problem that had stopped him playing and training regularly but Freedman has confirmed the 26-year-old is back in contention.
He said: “His condition wasn’t right to handle the workload required to play week in, week out, hence at the beginning of the season he was playing a game and then not training. I couldn’t have that.
“He’s been with the sports science department for the past six weeks. Now he’s back fit and in contention. We have got another defender we can benefit from.”
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