CHERRIES star David Brooks revealed he was thankful to be ripping apart Premier League defences – 12 months on from spending Christmas recovering from glandular fever.

The 21-year-old struck a match-winning double during Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Brighton at Vitality Stadium.

He drilled a 21st-minute effort past Seagulls stopper Mat Ryan to open the scoring, before applying a deft header to Ryan Fraser’s cross 13 minutes from time.

Brooks’s first top-flight brace is a far cry from his fortunes of a year ago.

While at Sheffield United, he was left kicking his heels at home after picking up the nasty viral infection.

Now set to spend a first festive period down south with his family, the Wales international admits he is relieved to be playing better than ever.

Brooks told the Daily Echo: “I was ill last year so while I did get to go home for Christmas, I didn’t get to enjoy it as much as I’d have liked.

“When you’re going through it, you don’t really know what’s going to come out of the other side.

“I was out of football for about two months and lost a lot of weight.

“You don’t know how your recovery will go from that. Thankfully, I have recovered and I’ve been doing all right.”

Cherries boss Eddie Howe admitted the Dorset club may have missed out on Brooks – who cost £10million – had he not been stuck down by the virus.

"We liked the player a lot from watching him at Sheffield United,” said Howe.

"He hadn't played a great deal at the back end of last season due to glandular fever and he had to recover from that period, which is probably why we were able to sign him.

"If he'd carried on playing and stayed fit, he probably would have gone beyond us.

"Full credit to him for that and also the ability to handle the Premier League, to not get carried away with his early-season success, to be very level-headed – that's a huge bonus.

"He is certainly ahead of schedule, I would say. We've been pleasantly surprised."

The Warrington-born star took to five top-flight goals his tally for the campaign with his double against Brighton, which paved the way for Cherries to end a three-game losing run.

But Brooks is determined to show no signs of slowing down his goalscoring form.

“That’s an area I can definitely improve on,” he added.

“Getting in the box, getting in goalscoring positions and maybe putting a few in the back of the net. Hopefully, this is a little run I can go on.

“Playing in the Premier League and playing with world-class players, I think you’re always going to improve. All I would say is, you’ve got to do the best you can do.”