Gary O'Neil on improvement of Joe Rothwell since Blackburn move

Rothwell had a slow start to his Cherries career, after arriving on a free transfer from Blackburn Rovers over the summer.

After a promising pre-season, the midfielder was ruled out just before the campaign began with a quad injury.

That meant the former Manchester United youngster never played competitively for the manager who signed him, Scott Parker, who was sacked by the time Rothwell was fit again.

When he did return from the treatment table, the 28-year-old found game-time hard to come by, with Jefferson Lerma, Philip Billing and Lewis Cook locking down the three central midfield roles in the team.

But following an injury to the latter in January, Rothwell has been handed the reins, starting 11 of Cherries’ past 16 fixtures, even since Cook returned to fitness two months ago.

He was one of Cherries’ standout performers during April, as Cherries racked up five victories to put them on the brink of Premier League safety.

Steve Cook: 'You could see Gary O'Neil was going to be a manager'

Discussing Rothwell, boss Gary O’Neil said: “He’s an interesting one, Joe.

“He came from Blackburn and was very attack-minded, never had too many defensive responsibilities at Blackburn.

“We worked hard with Joe on changing his habits really around how he sees the game and how he sees day-to-day training.

“It took a while with him to get him to where he is at this moment. But full credit to him.

“We haven’t done anything spectacular with him, we’ve just tried to point him in the right direction and he’s grabbed his moment and his opportunity and he works his socks off every single day.

“He’s shown huge improvement. He was always a fantastic footballer, but now he stays connected to the game much more, he doesn’t switch off anywhere near as much as he used to.

“You saw against a very talented Southampton midfielder in (Romeo) Lavia he can hold his own against some of the top midfielders in the Premier League.”