McEachran was ‘devastated’ to have suffered early season injury setback

Josh McEachran admitted he was devastated to pick up an injury just half-an-hour into the new campaign.

The 29-year-old limped out against Cambridge United back in July, but made his Dons return last week against Bolton Wanderers before getting his first start again in the win over Oxford United on Saturday.

McEachran had completed his first pre-season in several years this summer, so felt in great shape heading into the new campaign and said he was gutted to have the rug pulled under him at the Abbey Stadium so soon into the season.

“I was devastated to get injured in the first game of the season,” he said. “I felt I'd had a really good pre-season, I was in a good place with my fitness, so I was gutted to go down.

“But I've been back amongst the lads in the last few weeks and to get time on the pitch again against Bolton and Oxford, I was really pleased.”

“After the Bolton game, confidence was quite low so going to Oxford we knew it would be tough. But the three points is massive. We know there are bits to work on, but the main thing on Saturday was winning.”

Without a game this weekend due to the international break, Dons have been afforded two weeks on the training ground.

And McEachran says the training block will be huge in helping the team gel.

He said: “This international break has been massive for us and off the back of a win, it was a lot nicer.

“We've had a good week of training. With such a heavy schedule recently the gaffer and the staff haven't had much time with us on the training pitch so it has been vital. We've got a few days off now before returning on Monday to focus on Peterorough.

“We've still got to work through the transition, with the players we've lost and the players coming in, it won't happen over night but week-by-week we'll get better.”