Dougie Freedman has insisted that Stuart Holden will always be welcome at Bolton Wanderers as long as he is at the club.

Holden suffered a setback as he looked to make his return from a third major knee injury earlier this month and could miss up to nine months of football after requiring surgery to repair the problem.

However, Freedman claimed that the American midfielder, whose current Bolton deal expires in the summer, will be helped back to full fitness by the club.

"Stuart, first and foremost, has his operation to deal with," Freedman told reporters. "Then when he deals with the operation we'll see where we go from that.

"[His contract] is not something that's top of Stuart's list. He'll be back here for pre-season and hopefully we see him here running around and then we can make a decision.

"But if he wants to be, he's always welcome here. As long as I'm the manager he's always welcome here and he's always going to be here. With the injury, we just need to make sure he's right first."

Holden has only managed to make five appearances in the last three years for Bolton.