Colchester United this morning captured centre-half Cian Bolger on a loan deal from Bolton Wanderers.

Irishman Bolger will go straight into the U’s side for Saturday’s visit of Peterborough, playing alongside Magnus Okuonghae in the heart of defence.

Although Bolger never played a first team game for his first club Leicester City, and is yet to feature for Bolton since he signed for them last January, he rattled up an impressive 49 league appearances for Bristol Rovers, during three loan spells.

The 21-year-old is now looking forward to the challenge of stepping up a level to League One, with the injury-ravaged U’s.

“It’s all happened very quickly,” enthused Bolger.

“It’s come out of the blue. I only got the phone call yesterday afternoon, but I’m really looking forward to it.”

Bolger will replace David Wright in central defence, against Posh – makeshift centre-half Wright limped off with a hamstring injury during the latter stages of Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw at Shrewsbury Town.

Fellow centre-halves Tom Eastman and Josh Thompson are both currently on the injured list, as is Chelsea loanee Daniel Pappoe.

“I spoke to John Ward (Bristol Rovers manager) about Cian (Bolger), and he wanted to keep him,” revealed manager Joe Dunne during this morning’s press conference.

“Bolton want him to progress to the next level, and the next test for him is to play at League One level.

“He has been on our hit-list for a while, and it’s a good oprtounity for him to play in League One,” added Dunne.