Grant Holt, the thirty something striker who went from tyre fitter to full-time footballer, insists there is plenty of tread left on his career, whether it involves Wigan Athletic or, after November 8, Huddersfield Town.

That’s the date his loan from the Lancashire club, where he has been marginalised after a change of manager, runs out, and as he goes into the fourth game of his stint at the John Smith’s Stadium against Blackpool, he’s not looking beyond the next six.

Holt, 33, is under contract at Wigan, who paid £2m to Norwich City for his services the summer before last, until 2016, but it’s going to take a big thaw in his relationship with boss Uwe Rosler for him to pull on the blue and white stripes of the Latics on a regular basis ever again.

After flying high with the Canaries of Norwich in the Premier League, the Carlisle-born player was bought for Wigan by Owen Coyle as the Scotsman plotted a top-flight return for a team who had just won the FA Cup, but also been relegated.

Holt, who started out at Workington and returned to the Northern Premier League with their Cumbrian rivals Barrow after an early Football League foray with the original Halifax Town as a teenager, has played 22 games for Wigan, but only five of them have been under Rosler, who loaned him to Aston Villa five weeks after his appointment in December.

The lifelong Carlisle United fan returned to Wigan for pre-season ready to fight for his place, but found himself stripped of the No9 shirt, omitted from the team photograph and left to train with and play for the Under 21s, his only first-team outing coming as a substitute in the Capital One Cup.

“If I don’t fit into (Rosler’s) plans, he’s the manager, it’s his opinion and that’s fine,” said Holt in an interview with the Carlisle News & Star. “It’s the way he has handled things that I disagree with.

“Getting left out of the team photo, playing Under 21 games when I’ve not even come off the bench, it comes across as petty.

“He will probably say I could have done things differently too. But in my opinion I’ve done nothing wrong.

“He talked about me not being fit enough. I went away in the summer and came back four-and-a-half kilos lighter than I’ve ever been. When we did any run I was at the front. I did everything I was asked to do. And within three days I was told I wouldn’t play for the club again.

“They took my number off me, which never bothered me – you’re going to give that to your new signing (Spaniard Oriol Riera), fair enough – but to play me in a game and give me squad number 42? I thought that was strange.

“There are ways to get people out of a club and I just wanted a fair crack of the whip. I don’t feel I’ve had that.”

Wigan fans have had their say, much of it negative, but Holt pointed out: “Everyone’s entitled to an opinion.

“The silly stuff you just have to laugh off. Sometimes I get tweets and think, ‘If only you knew the truth’. But there’ll be a time and a place to put it all correct. That’ll probably be when I write a book.”

Holt, who has also played for Sheffield Wednesday, Rochdale, Nottingham Forest and Shrewsbury Town and once was once being linked with a possible England call-up, says the chance to play for Town has provided a real pick-me-up.

“It’s probably the toughest it’s been – not being around the lads, passing them like ships in the night,” added the father of three, who has been linked with Australian club Perth Glory as well as a move to the new Indian Super League.

“I’ve been asked questions at all my other clubs, but this has been the biggest time where I’ve thought, ‘Right, I’ve been backed against the wall’.

“I’ve kept myself as fit as I could in case an opportunity came up. In my three games for Huddersfield I’ve been sharp. It’s nice to have shown people I’ve still got a bit.”