Odemwingie Set to Join Bolton Wanderers

Osaze Peter Odemwingie was lined up for a medical yesterday evening as he prepares to sign for Bolton Wanderers.

The former Stoke City favourite has been without a club since leaving the bet365 Stadium in the summer, having spent most of last season on loan at Bristol City.

The Bolton News reported that the former Bendel Insurance player is due to train this weekend and could make his debut in League One at Bury on Monday.

“It’s tough being a free agent but I’m in great shape and hopefully a move should happen this week,” he had said earlier this week.

“Mentally and physically I feel strong, when your body and heart is perfectly prepared then you wouldn’t lack the right motivation to succeed.

“As you grow older it becomes tougher in football, you only need someone to believe in you and willing to take a chance.

“I still have a lot to offer a team and I only need to show what I can do somewhere for people to believe that.”

Odemwingie initially turned down a move from West Brom to Stoke in Mark Hughes’s first summer but arrived mid-season via a disappointing spell at Cardiff.

He turned out to be one of Hughes’s key signings, providing pace and energy and sparking a surge up the table that secured Stoke the first of three successive ninth-placed finishes.

According to papilonews.com, that summer he became the first Stoke player to score at a World Cup finals – but he suffered a major set-back when he endured an awful knee injury at the start of the following season, in the second half of a win at Manchester City.

It was a long road back to fitness and he had to battle for a place in Hughes’s squad, extending his contract for another year but stuck on the fringes.

He scored twice in Bristol City’s 6-0 win over Bolton in March and was on trial at Hull in the summer when Steve Bruce resigned as manager.