JAROSLAW Fojut has his sights set on becoming a ‘normal footballer’ again after injuries threatened to ruin his promising career.
The Polish defender is highly regarded at the Reebok but has spent more time in the medical room than on the pitch in 2008.
He underwent surgery in the summer to cure a long-standing groin problem and was forced to cut short a recent loan spell in League One with Stockport County because of a hamstring complaint.
Now Fojut is back in training and aiming to work his way back into the first-team picture at Wanderers.
“Over the last year I have had no luck at all, I have always been struggling with something,” the Whites centre-half explained.
“I have had three operations in the last three years and it is frustrating. It’s great to finally get back into training; I just hope it stays that way.
“It has really been hard to keep my head up at times but now I hope I can be a normal footballer again now.”
Fojut started the year with a successful loan spell at Luton Town but was sent back to Wanderers after the club went into administration last season.
After a summer operation on his groin, he went out again in October to Stockport to gain match fitness but struggled to live up to his own high expectations in a brief three-game spell.
“I had a good time at Stockport – it is a great little club,” he said. “The people there were good to me and the team played a kind of football that I didn’t expect. Anywhere you can go an play regularly is good but I was just unhappy that I never really felt fit there.
“They did not see the best of me because of the hamstring injury I was carrying at the time.
“I could have stayed there and played a few more games but there was no point.
“I decided to come back to Bolton, to start again, and get fit this time.”
Fojut made his Wanderers debut in 2006 as a substitute for Kal Fadiga in a 3-0 win over Watford in the FA Cup third round. A month later, he replaced the Senegal international again, this time in the Premier League at Fratton Park.
The following season he made two appearances in the Carling Cup at Walsall and Charlton but, aside from a three-month stint at Kenilworth Road, has since been hindered by a succession of injury problems.
Fojut is adamant his future now lies solely at the Reebok.
“I don’t need to think about going out on loan anywhere now, the main thing is for me to get my fitness back here in Bolton and go from there,” he said.
“I just want to play football. If I am not playing on Saturday then I will ask the question, can I play in the reserves?
“You can train all you want but there is no substitute for playing a game.
“It is not a great level but I think you have got to get a run out.
“We have only got a small squad so with a few injuries my chance might come. I have to be ready for that.”
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