The England forward started for Arsenal in Sunday’s 2-0 FA Cup Third Round win over Hull City, a year to the day since he suffered a long-term injury, to make his fourth appearance since his return.
Having fought back from that setback, the 25-year-old says it was the optimism of a return that pushed him on his road to recovery.
“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.
“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.”
