DAN Hodges is a name unfamiliar to all but the most ardent Cherries supporters. But this innovative 30-year-old is one of the architects of AFC Bournemouth’s climb from League One to the Premier League.

The club’s head of sport science since the summer of 2012, he has been instrumental in Cherries’ evolution into an indefatigable unit, one which allies its slick passing game with its willingness and capacity to rival anybody for sheer hard graft.

Hodges nevertheless admits he couldn’t have foreseen the club’s exponential rise, achieved against a backdrop of unerring stability, when he first walked through the door.

His thinking four years ago, and his view of football today as a “fluid, dynamic business”, was perhaps framed by the year Hodges spent at Rochdale prior to moving south. He worked with three different managers at the north-west club, who finished that 2011-12 campaign bottom of League One.

Then, soon after he arrived at Dean Court, Hodges was confronted with another managerial change, when Eddie Howe replaced Paul Groves. Rather than spell further upheaval for this aspirational individual, however, Howe’s return provided the platform for Hodges to flourish.

“The manager was fantastic,” Hodges tells the Daily Echo. “He knew what he wanted and gave me the opportunity to work with him. From there, we haven’t looked back.”

Hodges was a keen footballer himself. And it is when talking about his own playing background that he first offers a glimpse into his self-effacing nature.

“I was at Crystal Palace until I was 14,” he says. “But then everyone’s at a professional club when they’re younger, aren’t they? I thought I was OK, but… no, not really.”

Hodges fed a burgeoning interest in the physical side of the sport by studying for a sport science degree at Brunel University and then a Master’s in exercise and sports science at Manchester Metropolitan University. While pursuing the latter qualification he cut his professional teeth on the staff at Manchester City.

Put to him that the head of sport science job with Rochdale – which he accepted in preference to a post with Swansea City’s academy – was his chance to strike out in a prestige role, Hodges is, again, strikingly modest.

“That’s a glamorous title, there was only me there,” he says.

Today, Hodges is part of an altogether more extensive operation. At the head of it all, of course, is Howe. The pair typically meet twice a day, at 8.15am and again before training.

“His philosophy is you train how you play,” says Hodges. “We won’t have sessions where players can have on off-day physically and just get through it. The manager demands a lot of the players every day. They have to work at their peak level. Otherwise he’s not happy, we’re not happy and, ultimately, that player might suffer.”

And while the likes of Liverpool and Tottenham receive regular acclaim for the furious intensity of their play, Cherries bow to nobody when it comes to physical application on game day. So does Hodges swell with pride when he witnesses the team performing at their startlingly energetic best?

“It comes from the manager,” he says. “We’ll support him and do everything we can to make sure he gets what he wants, but I would never take credit for that. It’s the standards he drives that makes the team what it is. We’re here as a support act to make that happen.”

The obvious follow up question, regarding his emotion when a player suffers an injury during a game, is barely out of his inquisitor’s mouth when Hodges is laughing and offering the rejoinder, “Oh, yeah, it’s my fault.”

But there’s a more serious rider: “If there is a soft tissue injury we feel could have been prevented then we constantly reflect to ensure we learn from that and to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

As Hodges talks, Harry Arter, who sustained an injury in his side’s game at Watford the previous weekend, is away with Ireland. Given Hodges has a hand in overseeing players’ conditioning, recovery, injury prevention, nutrition and plenty more, he admits handing over care of his charges is tough. Indeed, mention of Arter’s name elicits a detectable grimace.

“It is a worrying time,” says Hodges. “The bigger nations are in contact with us the week before (an international break). We’ll send them data on what the player’s been doing and his usual workload.

“Largely, they’ll support that. But, ultimately, you don’t really know what they’re doing.”

Hodges says one of his main challenges is forging a balanced relationship with the players; respectful and friendly, without spilling into the over familiarity that could threaten his training ground command.

But in an era when Premier League clubs stand accused of stripping their players of any individual responsibility, Cherries’ philosophy strikes a contrasting note.

“Primarily, it’s about educating the players,” says Hodges. “You want them to make the right decisions when they’re away from the club. When they go away or move on they still have the knowledge to know what’s right and what’s wrong.”

Certainly, Hodges has no plans to move on. But ask him if he’s happy to settle for his lot in life and the response is forthright.

“You can never settle,” he says. “That’s a dangerous place to be. If you settle you’ll find yourself in trouble.

“You have to be forward thinking all the time.”