Theo Walcott says setting short-term targets and staying positive was vital to his rehabilitation.

The England forward started against Hull City on Sunday, a year to the day since he suffered a long-term injury against Tottenham Hotspur.

The 2-0 victory over Hull was Walcott’s fourth appearance this season and the 25-year-old believes his optimism helped him on his long road to recovery.

"Week by week, hitting the goals and when you have achieved that, you can feel good about hitting something else" Theo Walcott

“You need to just come into training with a smile on your face, enjoy it and that’s all you can do,” Walcott told Arsenal Player. “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.