Amadou Bakayoko is enjoying a memorable season and boss Ian Evatt believes there is even more to come.
Bakayoko is enjoying the most prolific campaign of his club career after his late winner at Crewe last Saturday took him beyond the 10 goals he scored for Walsall in 2016/17.
The Wanderers’ striker then collected a first international cap when he played the full 90 minutes for Sierra Leone in their 3-0 loss to Togo in the Antalya Cup in Turkey.
Bakayoko couldn’t add to his scoring tally from a couple of sights of goal but Evatt is delighted with what the 26-year-old is delivering in his first season with the Whites, with his goals coming at a rate of around one every 70 minutes on the pitch.
“Eleven goals for a player who’s had his injuries this season and whose football has been limited at times - we’re delighted with him,” said the Wanderers’ manager.
“We feel like there’s improvement in them all and he’s one of those.
“And it was great for him to get another important goal last week.”
Bakayoko kicked off Wanderers’ international commitments with Dion Charles (Northern Ireland) and James Trafford (England U20s) hoping to get a slice of the action on Friday evening.
Frontman Jon Dadi Bodvarsson is with the Iceland squad that plays the first of their two friendlies on Saturday night against Finland.
And Evatt will then hope to have the quartet back safe and sound to link up with the rest of his squad, which has been given a couple of days off this week before hitting the training ground again in preparation for derby-day at Wigan Athletic on Saturday-week.
Wanderers have sold out of their allocation of almost 4,100 tickets for the fixtures at second-placed Wigan as they kick off a big three-game run against top-10 sides.
“We’ve got a big game when we return – in fact a big week with Portsmouth and Sheffield Wednesday,” added Evatt, whose side kept their outside play-off hopes alive with a second successive away win at Crewe.
“We’ll get some rest into them and make sure we’re ready and prepared for Wigan when we come back.”