By Mark Heys
August 4 2006

Danish utlility player Henrik Pedersen has confirmed that his recent achillies operation has been a success and states that he will be back in training within the next fortnight. The 31-year old has missed most of the Wanderers pre-season programme after aggrivating the injury which he initially picked up mid-way through the course of last season.

Pedersen was quick to pay tribute to the Bolton medical staff after they offered him their extended support and advice during his time on the sidelines..

"I'm delighted that the operation has been a great success," said Pedersen to the official website.

"The Sports Science team have been very supportive and given me the best possible guidance. The injury is still sore, but the specialist has told me that I can return to training in two weeks. Pre-season has been very frustrating; however, I do feel fit and I can't wait to be kicking a ball again."

Pedersen is not the only first team player nursing an injury problem as Nicky Hunt, Kevin Davies and Ricardo Gardner are all ruled out of the Trotters summer tour of Spain leaving manager Sam Allardyce reliant on trialist pair Lorenzo Stovini and Alex Perez to make up the numbers and possibly earn a contract.

Perez was a junior player at Real Madrid last year and experienced centre half Stovini has been plying his trade with Italian outfit Lecce recently.