ALAN O'BRIEN knows displays like that produced by Hibs in their 4-1 weekend win over Motherwell will make it even harder for him to return to the first team – but the winger couldn't be happier.
The Irishman has been battling his way back to fitness following a knee injury that forced him to limp out of the SPL game against Inverness back in August.
The resultant operation to resolve the problem caused him to miss three months of football
and he has only recently been fit enough to enjoy two substitute outings, against Dundee United and Aberdeen, for Mixu Paatelainen's side.
Alongside those fleeting appearances, he has featured in the reserves over the last few weeks and yesterday saw him complete his first 90 minutes since sustaining the injury, although it was a disappointing display from the second string, who went down 4-1 to Inverness at Almondvale.
While O'Brien, an unused substitute at Fir Park on Saturday, admits he doesn't want to be stuck in the reserves long-term, he appreciates that he may have to wait for his opportunity to re-establish himself in the starting line-up, especially as midfield rivals John Rankin and Dean Shiels did themselves no harm by scoring in Lanarkshire.
O'Brien got his season off to a flyer and won himself an army of fans with his return to form.
Now he's keeping his fingers crossed that it won't be too long before he can get back to what he does best.
"The team are doing really well right now so I know that I will have to wait for my chance to come along again," said the 23-year-old.
"I've played a few games as a substitute and hopefully that will help me take my opportunity when it does come along. I've played quite a lot of football in the reserves recently as well so they should help bring me back up to scratch quicker.
"Obviously, when the boys are playing well it makes it more difficult for me, but I'm really happy to see them doing so well. The game against Motherwell was a great confidence booster for everyone and I think a result like that has been coming for some time now.
"I can't expect to walk straight back into the side, I need to be feeling 100 per cent before I would even want to be back in there.
"The side right now is really forward-thinking and obviously the manager is adding to the squad again in January, we know that Jonatan Johansson is coming in.
"I think that everything seems to be starting to click between the lads and hopefully we can keep that going."
O'Brien feels that he is now reaching full fitness again after a lengthy recovery period and he is just glad to be back among the banter and camaraderie of the team's training sessions at their East Mains complex after two months of slogging it out with only club physio Colin McLelland for company. He said: "I spent ten weeks basically on my own, doing a lot of light work and running with the physio, I wasn't able to do much else. I had to take everything a step at a time and build up gradually so it was kind of frustrating and it was a very difficult time.
"It was a tough couple of months but it is behind me now and I just can't wait to get back to playing regularly. There's still over half of the season to go and it's starting to settle down a bit and the table is taking shape. I don't know whether the manager will pick me against Falkirk this weekend, I will just have to wait and see, but I'm just looking forward to getting back to play football again."
O'Brien knows he will have to play better than he did against Caley yesterday, as will the rest of his team-mates, who put in a below-par performance in the heavy defeat. The former Newcastle winger continued: "That was my first 90 minutes and physically I feel fine, although obviously the result went against us. I'm just trying to get my fitness back to the level it was before I was injured. I'm feeling fine now – I just need to start showing it a bit more. I'll work as hard as possible over the next few weeks to make sure that I'm doing my bit.
"We gave Inverness too many chances and probably didn't create enough of our own, which is frustrating. But we just have to take it on the chin and make sure that it doesn't happen again."
The full article contains 790 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
