ZAT Knight has no doubts David Wheater’s timely return from injury will help Wanderers fans get over the loss of Craig Dawson.

After spending the vast majority of last season on the sidelines because of a serious knee injury, followed by a calf problem, Wheater arrives back in Dougie Freedman’s side with something of a point to prove to his manager.

To make life a little tougher, such was Dawson’s impact in the second half of last season whilst on loan from West Brom, he is likely to be given little time by the fans to ease his way back in.

New skipper Knight admits the bubbly Wheater is chalk and cheese compared with the more reserved Dawson, who looks likely to stay on to fight his cause at the Hawthorns. But he claims the big defender can come in and produce the same level of consistency which made his former defensive partner such a success.

“Dawson had a fantastic few months here, but I believe Wheats can step in easy,” he told The Bolton News. “He’s an experienced player and he’s had to play a bit of catch up because he was out for a long time.

“But I think: ‘Give him a few games and he’ll be right back to the player he was’.”

Wheater signed a new three year contract recently, putting him in pole position to play alongside the new captain at the heart of the defence, ahead of Tim Ream, Matt Mills or Cian Bolger.

Knight is looking forward to rekindling the partnership which showed promise soon after Wheater’s arrival from Middlesbrough for £2.3million in January, 2011.

“The new deal shows what the club think of him,” he said. “First of all, I hope I can stay in the team, but secondly I hope I can build a relationship with him.

“Wheater definitely isn’t shy off the field and he gives as good as he gets, reads the game well, so hopefully I have got a partner who is just as good next to me as Dawson was in the latter half of last season.”

Knight saw close at hand what a partisan atmosphere there is likely to be at Turf Moor tomorrow afternoon when he took the field on the opening day of last season.

The whole country will be watching on this time as the two founder members of the Football League kick-off the new Championship season to mark its 125th anniversary.

Knight desperately wants to avoid freezing on the day, and called for a much-improved start this time around.

“That result at Burnley set the tone. We didn’t start cleverly,” he said.

“It will be a big occasion. It’ll be the 125th anniversary and I know the league is making a lot of it.

“We don’t need to get caught up in all that. We just need to go and play our game.

“We want stay up there from the beginning, not playing catch-up like last season.

“We want that run from the beginning. We know there will be ups and downs and there are some good teams in this league who can get on a run. But we need to give ourselves the best chance.”