Eight months ago, Gary O'Neil  may have been contemplating the prospect of spending the whole of Christmas and New Year at home with the family.

On 16 April at home to Aston Villa, he suffered a serious ankle injury following a challenge by Nigel Reo-Coker. It prompted fears over his long-term future and many thought he would be out for at least a year.

The midfielder was having none of it though, and his determination to return saw him put himself through months of painstaking rehabilitation with the club's medical staff.

After hours upon hours of solitary strength work led to three development squad matches in as many weeks, Sam Allardyce felt he had seen enough to give O'Neil the moment he had been waiting for. He was named in the manager's selection to travel for the Boxing Day game at Birmingham City.

Still only 28, O'Neil has been in full flow on the practice pitches at Chadwell Heath but was still surprised to get the call when it came. He knows he has to keep working hard to continue his progress and still has a lot to prove.

"It was quite late notice," he told whufc.com. "It wasn't something i was expecting. I had a decent 80 minutes in a reserve game and a couple of decent training sessions with the first team this week. I looked up on Christmas Eve and my name was on the board to travel. It was nice to be back involved."

O'Neil may have remained on the bench as an unused substitute at St Andrews but he was just grateful to feel the matchday buzz once again and be a full part of the dressing room banter.

" I spent a lot of time working hard on my own to get to this position, no one gets to see that. It was nice to finally get a reward and get to feel part of the squad again. It is just a shame that the result didn't go our way but it was really good to be involved."

Of course, with one taste comes the hunger for more and O'Neil will want to remain a full part of it now until the end of the season. With just eight games in the claret and blue under his belt, and plenty of experience of the division having won promotion with Portsmouth, he wants to be a major asset for Big Sam.

He is certainl hoping to help the team build on the Birmingham draw with the New Year's Eve trip to Derby County and then Monday's visit of Coventry City to the Boleyn.

"We are looking forward to the next couple of games, starting with Derby on Saturday. The position the lads were in at Birmingham we expected to go on and win but a point away from home is good and we have another two big games this week. It is important we get the results."