Bittersweet for O’Hora as he makes his Dons comeback after surgery

It was an afternoon of mixed emotions for Warren O’Hora on Saturday after he made his MK Dons comeback following foot surgery.

The 1-0 defeat to Fleetwood Town still leaves Dons outside of the relegation zone, but they are six games without a win now and just two points separate them and Morecambe in 21st with two games to go.

O’Hora broke his foot in the 0-0 draw with Lincoln City at Stadium MK in mid-January, heightening Dons’ defensive crisis as they were reduced to just four fit players in the backline at times.

Estimated at the time to be missing for the remainder of the campaign, O’Hora’s return comes ahead of schedule, with the 24-year-old only returning to full training last Monday before making his on-pitch return five days later.

But the 1-0 defeat at Highbury Stadium took the shine off his return, the Irishman admitted.

“I'm happy to be back ahead of schedule,” he said. “I wanted to help the team today, but it didn't go our way.

“I felt every minute of the game, believe me! I'm happy to be back, get through the 90 minutes wasn't really the plan but I've had no niggles, which is positive. I'm tired now! I had to give everything.

“It's a smaller pitch which helped me, playing in the middle which doesn't require as much running so Tucks and Skip did a bit more for me, as did Josh and Paris. But I'm feeling good to be lacing up my boots again.”

On the game, he continued: “It's a tough one to take. It was a game we needed to take points from and move away from the bottom of the table. We saw it as an opportunity that we didn't take.

“We had some chances we should have taken, but a bit of sloppiness killed us.

“We had some good chances in the first-half but didn't work the keeper enough. We have to be ruthless in both boxes.”