EUNAN O’Kane admitted the tedium and hard graft of a spell on the sidelines had been worth it to return to training a week early.

The Derry-born midfielder suffered strained ankle ligaments at the beginning of February following a horror tackle by Watford’s Daniel Pudil.

O’Kane, 24, had been scheduled to spend up to six weeks out but the Cherries ace returned to full training last week.

He told the Daily Echo: “It is boring being injured. The days get an awful lot longer because you arrive before most of the boys and leave a long time after.

“It’s hard work and mentally challenging but the work I’ve put in has meant I’m back earlier than I should be. When you get to this stage it’s worth the long days.

“From a personal point of view in the remainder of this season I’d like to get some minutes, help in the run-in and for us as a group to get promoted.”

The former Everton youngster, who had received an apology from Pudil via Twitter after the incident, said his injury had to be accepted as an unfortunate part of the game.

He continued: “Challenges like that happen all the time and some people miss getting injured by millimetres and other people, like me, just get caught.

“The pleasing thing from my point of view was that I didn’t do it through a weakness of my own – it was just a collision.

“If I had rolled it because I had not worked properly on my ankles or whatever, that would have been a whole lot more frustrating.

“But because it was no fault of my own, I think you just have to accept it and move on.”