Arsenal forward Theo Walcott has admitted that it was smiling that got him through his year long lay off with injury, as reported by Arsenal.com.

The England international suffered his knock during an FA Cup third round clash with fierce rivals Tottenham Hotspur last season, and in a remarkable display of mirroring, made his first start since recovering from his injury in the third round game against Hull City last weekend, exactly a year on from the Spurs injury, a game which Arsenal won by exactly the same scoreline, 2-0.

The 25 year old is convinced that he is over his injury woes, and that he can make an impact over the rest of the season.

However, he also told Arsenal Player his secrets behind remaining positive in the face of such a long injury spell.

Part of it, he feels, is simply not allowing yourself to get down or feel negative while injured.

He said: “You need to just come into training with a smile on your face, enjoy it and that’s all you can do.

“I remember when I had one of my injuries before, I came in down in the dumps and rehab seemed to take so much longer.

“You don’t want that, you want to come in and feel like you’re doing something each day. Even though it might be the same things at the start, you benefit when it comes to the end of it.

“I like to work week by week, so I forget about the big picture and the nine months. Week by week, hitting the goals and when you have achieved that, you can feel good about hitting something else.

“When I was first coming in, it was in the afternoon, which is a good thing because I was on crutches and the physios had to deal with the players that were fit at the time.

“I’d see the players go out and that was quite tough. Then I came in during the mornings and just doing that helped me feel I had a place back in the squad, so that was nice.”