Bolton Wanderers manager Ian Evatt has revealed that Ricardo Santos is expected to make his return to action for the club in their EFL Trophy clash with Portsmouth on Tuesday.

Santos has not featured for Bolton since being hospitalised with a virus last month.

After being named as a substitute in the club's recent triumph over Barnsley, Santos was not included in the match-day squad for yesterday's meeting with Plymouth.

In the absence of Santos, Bolton picked up a point in their showdown with the League One leaders.

Elias Kachunga went closest to scoring what would have been a winning goal for Wanderers in this fixture as his effort was denied by the woodwork.

Will Aimson meanwhile produced a goal line clearance to prevent Ben Waine from scoring on his debut for Plymouth in the closing stages of this clash.

As a result of this draw, Bolton moved level on points with Derby County who currently occupy fourth place in the League One standings.

Following his side's meeting with Plymouth, Evatt shared an update on Santos.

Speaking to The Bolton News about the defender, Evatt said: "It was nothing to do with anything apart from the fact we want to get him up to speed as soon as possible and being on the bench, with the amount of work that will entail, we felt that a proper training day with the B Team where we can test his energy and physicality and fitness levels was more important.

"We felt he would gain more from that, so it is what we decided to do.

"He had a really good day, a really good training session, and he will be ready to play on Tuesday."

The Verdict

This is a positive update for Bolton as their supporters would have been concerned by Santos' absence from the squad yesterday.

Providing that the defender is able to emerge unscathed from the club's EFL Trophy quarter-final showdown with Pompey, he could go on to re-establish as a key member of Bolton's starting eleven over the course of the coming weeks.

Santos has produced some assured displays for Wanderers during the current term and will be confident in his ability to help the club secure a play-off place later this year.

In the 17 league games that he has participated in this season, Santos has made 2.1 tackles, 1.5 interceptions and 3.7 clearances per match and is currently averaging an impressive WhoScored match rating of 6.98 at this level.