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Ex-Rotherham United and Sheffield Wednesday figure faces patient wait for Blackpool return Blackpool boss Ian Evatt provided an update on Michael Ihiekwe at the end of last week. Michael Ihiekwe has endured a tough time since his move to Blackpool last summer - and will have to be patient for his first start of the season. The defender was forced to play through injury across his debut campaign in Tangerine, with steroid injections required for long periods due to a toe problem. This would leave the 33-year-old struggling to walk, and certainly had a detrimental impact on his performances. Ihiekwe eventually underwent surgery in April, which resulted in the majority of his summer being spent going through rehabilitation. The ex-Rotherham United and Sheffield Wednesday promotion-winner was among those absent for Blackpool against Grimsby Town on Saturday afternoon, with his return to action still set to take a bit of time. Subscribe now for HALF PRICE and catch every minute of our Seasiders coverage this season - from pre-season to the final whistle. Click here “Michael is progressing all of the time,” head coach Ian Evatt said. “It was quite a big surgery he had, and quite a big issue to resolve. At the moment we’re in that tolerance stage of building up his load to see if the repaired toe can cope with it. “At the moment, everything’s going smoothly, but it isn’t imminent - we have to be patient. We see it as, we want him to return for 35/40 games this season, and not pushing him too soon where we lose him again for a length of time. “We’re happy with everything but moving forwards with caution.” With several players missing multiple pre-season games, Evatt admits the club will have to proceed with caution. “There isn’t an easy answer to that equation,” he added. “When players are returning and they’ve missed a great deal of pre-season, they haven’t got the pre-season fixtures to build up their minutes. You can only make so many changes in games, and you have to win. “You can’t give them 20/30 minutes to build up their tolerance, so we’re having to do a lot of work on the training pitch. “You have to find the balance between doing too much and having them fresh and available for games. It’s not an easy equation, but we have to do our best to solve it, and we’re doing all we can to make that happen.”