Sunderland's Duncan Watmore on his rehab and the Premier League striker providing inspiration

Wilson himself suffered two ACL ruptures after making a flying start to life in the Premier League with Eddie Howe's side.

He is now back playing regular football and was nominated for the Premier League player of the month award alongside the likes of Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard.

Wilson scored three goals and added two assists in January as the Cherries went unbeaten.

He now has eight goals for the season and that gives Watmore even more belief that he can make a successful comeback.

Watmore told BBC Radio 5 Live: "The day I did my second ACL he scored a hat-trick, and everyone kind of said that was a sign, ‘Why can’t you come back and do that as well?’ You’ve got to look at situations like that, he’s playing great football at the moment and in my position you’ve got to look up to that and believe you can follow it."

Watmore had suffered his setback in the 2-2 draw with Millwall on November 18th.

That was the day before Chris Coleman took charge and the Sunderland boss said it had come as a massive blow both to him and the club as a whole.

Watmore is making good progress in his recovery and has no doubt that he can again come back a better player.

He said: "I ruptured the ACL again five games into my comeback. It was just an unlucky tackle rather than an innocuous turn, which I think I would have found harder to deal with.

"What happened could have happened to anyone, which was some solace for me in that I did the rehab correctly. I’ve got a great rehab physio in David Binningsley, he does all the work for me and it is hard work every day. You’ve got to keep that positive mindset, with injuries the main thing is the battle in the mind but I’m still young and can come back better than I was."

Coleman said at the start of the year that he would do everything possible to keep Watmore in the first team picture.

"Duncan came to the Middlesbrough game recently, which was the plan to bring him to some of the games and to keep him involved," Coleman said.

“That is important because he is out long-term. Duncan is a cracking kid, he really is a great boy.

"What would you give to have him with us? I’m not just talking about his ability but as a person too, he is a really good person; good kid. Sadly, sometimes that is how it works.

“He is okay though and is in a good frame of mind and he is chipping away at his rehabilitation work.”